Tinubu
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Efforts by President Bola Tinubu to secure legislative approval for the state of emergency in Rivers State on Wednesday failed at the House of Representatives.
The House could not vote on the matter because of low attendance.
Under the Nigerian Constitution, in Section 305, the president is expected to get the support of a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate within two days of issuance before any presidential declaration of emergency would become legitimate.
However, at the the House of Representatives plenary on Wednesday to consider the president’s emergency declaration, less than 80 lawmakers attended the session, which fell far below the 120 members required to form a quorum in the 360-member chamber.
This made it impossible to proceed with an official vote, as they could not make a one-third quorum to make the controversial declaration legal.
It was suggested that some lawmakers deliberately kept away to avoid any link to the president’s decision, which has been largely described as an “unconstitutional overreach”.
President Tinubu had announced in a nationwide broadcast a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspending all elected officials of the state, including Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his Deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all members of the State House of Assembly for six months.
Thereafter, he appointed a retired Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (Rtd.), as sole administrator of the state.
