Ebonyi State based Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Roy Umahi (SAN) has called on those criticizing the declaration of State of Emergency in Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu to reject the expression of emotions and sentiments while judging the actions of the President.
“I want to say that nobody is saying that the President does not have power to declare a state of emergency in any State if an extraordinary situation arises. What some people are saying is that, yes, the President has the power to declare a state of emergency but that in making such a declaration he should not suspend the Governor of the State, the Deputy Governor and members of the house of assembly. I think that’s exactly what people are saying”.
“Nobody is doubting the fact that section 305 of the 1999 constitution as amended gives the President the power to declare a state of emergency in any State and then to approach the National Assembly for ratification of the declaration if they see it fit. He has to approach them within two days from the date of the making of the declaration if the National Assembly is in session but if the National Assembly is not in session then within 10 days”.
“So the issue that is bothering most people, especially lawyers, is the couching of the provisions of section 305 of the 1999 constitution.That section actually tends to create doubts as to whether in the declaration of a state of emergency, the Pesident can or cannot suspend the Governor of a State, his Deputy and the members of the house of Assembly”
“Now those who are making categorical statements that the President cannot suspend or can suspend the State electees, of course they know within themselves that they cannot stand their feet and say that they are too sure of what they are saying,because what they are individually saying is either based on mere conjecture or downright.it’s a case of downright grandstanding or it may be politics or it may be expression of emotions or sentiments”.
He noted that the declaration of a state of emergency by the President pertains to the existence of an extraordinary situation, an abnormal situation which the declaration seeks to arrest in order to restore normalcy.
“Now it may sometimes happen that the people who are causing this, the people who are responsible for the declaration of a state of emergency may be the people who are in office like the Governor, the Deputy Governor, the house of assembly members as is clearly the case in River State.
“So, now the question will be since a declaration of a state of emergency involves restriction of rights, of the Governor, the Deputy Governor and the house of assembly members, how would whoever is going to handle the security situation go ahead to handle it because the Governor is still having his immunity to do anything he likes within the State but when you remove, when you now suspend him,it means he no longer has that immunity. So the extent that he can go on doing whatever he was doing before now, would be limited or restricted.
“Now we are dealing with a State where the Governor and the house of assembly members have been having problems since 2023 or thereabouts.Now this problem culminated in the burning of the State House of Assembly. Now there is a video in circulation where the Governor told the youths that when it would be needed for them to act he would tell them. Now the question then is, whether the present acts of blowing up oil pipelines, gas pipelines, whether those youths have actually not been instructed.
“As I said before, the declaration of a state of emergency means that there exists an abnormal set of affairs that will need to be dealt with in some extraordinary ways. The need for the application of those extraordinary ways to deal with the situation is what underlies the essence of the declaration of a state of emergency. So whether the state Governor and his Deputy and house of assembly members would remain in their offices or should be suspended would depend largely on whether they are remaining in their offices would hamper or assist in the resolution of the abnormal situation that led to the declaration of the state of emergency.
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