Share!
Atiku Blasts Tinubu’s Declaration of State of Emergency in Rivers
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State, describing it as politically motivated and in bad faith.
Atiku, in a statement posted on his X account, accused Tinubu of being a partisan actor in the state’s ongoing political crisis, blaming the President for either deliberately ignoring or negligently allowing the situation to escalate.
He condemned the security breaches in Rivers State, attributing the destruction of national infrastructure to Tinubu’s failure to maintain order.
Atiku further accused Tinubu’s administration of plunging the Niger Delta back into instability, reversing the peace achieved during the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s tenure. He emphasized that the responsibility for the crisis rests squarely with Tinubu.
The former vice president strongly opposed the alleged political maneuvering behind the state of emergency, warning that punishing Rivers State residents for political disputes between the governor and Tinubu’s allies is undemocratic and unacceptable.
Read the statement below:
“The declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.
“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.
“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 @officialABAT’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms. -AA”.