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Tinubu erred by removing Fubara, dep – Lawyers

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Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa and Abeny Mohammed on Tuesday faulted the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.

The SANs described the declaration of emergency state as well as the removal of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, as unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Following the political crisis in Rivers State, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday declared a state of emergency in the oil-rich state and suspended Fubara, Odu and members of the state House of Assembly for a period of six months.

In a nationwide broadcast, the president nominated Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (rtd) as administrator to take charge of the affairs of the state.

Rivers State has been embroiled in a crisis since last year when the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike and the governor fell out with each other.

The situation led to the alleged defection of 27 members of the state assembly loyal to Wike. The lawmakers subsequently lost their seats but were later reinstated by the Supreme Court.

Before declaring the state of emergency, Tinubu had, earlier yesterday, met with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and House of Representatives Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas as well as National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, service chiefs and heads of other security agencies at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

But a ranking senator said yesterday that the president meeting the leadership of the national assembly was not enough as there was the need for the input of other members

“Why the rush? Why putting a retired soldier to take over? It is wrong to encourage military incursion in politics in whatever guise.

What the president did amounts to error of judgement and it will escalate tension in the Niger Delta. It is illegal,” he said.

Lawyers speak

Adegboruwa (SAN) called on the president to rescind his decision to remove the elected government officials in Rivers State and allow democratic process to be applied in dealing with issues.

“The action of Mr President is premeditated and showed that he is biased,” Adegboruwa alleged.

“I don’t support the actions of the governor or the FCT minister, but the declaration has upended the democratic will of the people of Rivers State.“ The action of the president is unwarranted, undemocratic and uncalled for.”

Adegboruwa also questioned why Osun and Benue states, with issues of local government dispute and Lagos State where two speakers of the state assembly emerged in one day had not been met with a state of emergency.

Similarly, Abeny Mohammed said the action taken by the president was extreme and unconstitutional.

He stated: “The Rivers State governor was elected into office by the people in accordance with the constitution and can only be removed in accordance with the constitution.”

However, Dayo Akinlaja (SAN), said the matter was beyond legal analysis as the crisis in Rivers State was an “upshot of a political crisis.”

It’s political manipulation – Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday described the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State as political manipulation.

He accused the president of being a partisan actor in the crisis, saying “Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers.

“His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful,” Atiku said.

The presidential candidate of the PDP in the last election in a post on his verified Facebook page said, “Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the president’s desk.

“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.

“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’adua.

Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.

“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the president bears full responsibility.

Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”

Why I declared state of emergency in Rivers – Tinubu

In his broadcast, the president said he was disturbed at the turn of events in the political crisis in the state.

He said, “With the crisis persisting, there is no way democratic governance, which we have all fought and worked for over the years can thrive in a way that will benefit the good people of the state.

“The state has been at a standstill since the crisis started with the good people of the state not being able to have access to the dividends of democracy.

”The president added, “Some militants had threatened fire and brimstone against their perceived enemy of the governor who has up till now not disowned them.

“Apart from that both the House and the governor have not been able to work together.

Both of them do not realise that they are in office to work together for the peace and good governance of the state.

“Latest security reports made available to me show that between yesterday and today there have been disturbing incidents of vandalisation of pipelines by some militants without the governor taking any action to curtail them.

I have, of course given stern order to the security agencies to ensure safety of lives of the good people of Rivers State and the oil pipelines.”

The president said based on the situation, he was invoking the provisions of Section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) “to declare a state of emergency on the state and that it takes effect from Tuesday, March 18, 2025.

“By this declaration, the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu and all elected members of the House of Assembly of Rivers State are hereby suspended for an initial period of six months,” he said.

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Insecurity: Nigeria’s Internally Displaced Persons Hit 3.726m

According to the report, Zamfara is hosting 276,887 IDPs in 9 camps as of March 2026, while , Benue State hosts over 500,000 internally displaced persons, making it one of the worst-hit states.

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Data compiled by the International Organisation for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix, showed that there are 3,725,593 internally displaced persons, IDPs, now scattered across about 3,900 camps and settlements nationwide.

According to the report, Zamfara is hosting 276,887 IDPs in 9 camps as of March 2026, while , Benue State hosts over 500,000 internally displaced persons, making it one of the worst-hit states.

In Taraba State, about 90,000 displaced persons are currently sheltered in eight camps located in Peva and Kufai Ahmadu in Chanchanji Ward of Takum LGA.

The report said that the crisis has largely been driven by insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, farmer–herder conflicts in the North-Central, and communal clashes in parts of the South.

It further said that Nigeria’s 3.726 million displaced population is larger than the population of at least 63 countries whose populations are under 3.7 million, according to United Nations population estimates.

Among countries with fewer than 3.7 million people are Uruguay (3.4m), Jamaica (2.8m), Qatar (2.7m), Namibia (2.6m) and Botswana (2.6m).

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Atiku’s Media Aide, Ifeanyi Izeze is Dead

The media office said that further details about Izeze’s burial would be made public by his family.

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Atiku Media Office has announced the death of Ifeanyi Izeze, a member of the media team of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

In the statement , Izeze a prominent and pioneer member of the ex-VP’s media team died on Sunday.

“Ifeanyi Izeze joined the media team of the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2006, from Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Ikot-Abasi as the Office Manager.

He brought to bear on the work of the media team at that critical stage of Atiku’s political career, his wealth of experience in the media, Niger Delta and Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

Izeze trained as a geologist at the University of Port Harcourt up to postgraduate level, but carved a niche in journalism where he reported and wrote extensively on oil and gas industry in Nigeria for many years in the defunct Sunray, Anchor, and NewAge newspapers among others, before he joined ALSCON.

In the Atiku Media Office, Ifeanyi was a senior member of the team and its pioneer Office Manager who helped shape the campaign policies of the Atiku Presidential Campaigns in the Niger Delta, particularly in the oil and gas sectors,” the statement further reads.

Atiku Media Office described the deceased as a man with a prodigious sense of humour and a born-again Christian of the Christ Embassy.

The media office said that further details about Izeze’s burial would be made public by his family.

He left behind children, grandchildren and an elder and only surviving brother, Pastor Emeka Izeze of the Guardian Newspapers fame

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Tinubu Pledges Support for Nigerian Media in Battle Against Big Tech.

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...Vows Tariff Relief on Newsprint and Equipment. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has thrown the full weight of his administration behind Nigeria’s media industry in its escalating fight against Big Tech’s dominance, unfair content usage, and crippling economic pressures, while promising to slash or eliminate import tariffs on essential production materials.

Speaking at a high-level interfaith dinner held at the State House on Friday, March 13, 2026, the President described the Nigerian press as an “indispensable partner” in the country’s drive for economic recovery, democratic consolidation, and national unity.

“We will help dismantle the fiscal hurdles and digital cannibalisation currently threatening the survival of the press,” Tinubu declared, assuring the delegation that his government is actively reviewing the national tariff exemption list.

Among the items under consideration for zero or reduced duty (currently 5–10%) are newsprint, printing plates, chemicals, and broadcast equipment for radio and television—materials the media sector has long argued should receive the same preferential treatment as educational and research imports.

“You have the government’s full support, because we know how important your work is to the sustenance of democracy,” the President told representatives of the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) and other leading industry bodies.

The closed-door meeting brought together a powerful cross-section of Nigeria’s media leadership, including:

– Lady Maiden Alex-Ibru, NPO President and Publisher of The Guardian

– Frank Aigbogun, NPAN Deputy President and Publisher of BusinessDay (who delivered the industry’s joint address)

– Aremo Olusegun Osoba (Vanguard)

– Sam Amuka (THISDAY/ARISE News)

– Prince Nduka Obaigbena (Channels Television)

– Dr John Momoh, Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)

– Leaders of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), among others.

In his presentation, Aigbogun accused unnamed global tech platforms widely understood to include Google and Meta of systematically “scraping” Nigerian journalistic content, frequently breaching paywalls, to train artificial intelligence models without compensation.

He claimed these practices are depriving local media houses of up to 70% of their legitimate advertising and syndication revenue losses running into hundreds of millions of dollars annually while triggering widespread job losses across newsrooms.

Aigbogun called on the President to instruct the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to launch a formal investigation, in partnership with media stakeholders, into Big Tech’s alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, told the gathering that preliminary engagements with major tech companies, including Meta and Google, are already in progress.

“The government will not allow anybody to come here, reap from our economy, and go away without giving back,” Idris said firmly.Vice President Kashim Shettima, together with several senior presidential aides, also attended the event.

The State House meeting follows an earlier January 2026 letter and public statement from the NPO highlighting the existential threat posed by unregulated digital platforms to Nigeria’s independent media ecosystem.

Industry observers view the President’s commitments as a potential turning point, offering both short-term cost relief through tariff adjustments and longer-term policy backing in the global push for fair revenue sharing between traditional media and dominant tech intermediaries.

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