Former labour leaders in Rivers State have decried the developments in Rivers State as a”collapse of democracy”.
The forum of former labour leaders in Port Harcourt on Thursday, led by its Chairman, Achese Igwe, and Acting Secretary, Bennett
Kalio, faulted the decision of President Bola Tinubu to declare a State of Emergency in Rivers State without exhausting all available reconciliation processes.
They declared that the suspension of democratically elected officers was illegal.
Achese Igwe, former National President of NUPENG, who read the statement, warned that the spate of protests against the state of emergency and suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Professor Ngozi Odu, and members of the State House of Assembly, signals a looming danger in the state.
He said: “Ordinarily, as former Labour leaders, we are not supposed to lead workers to protest the collapse of democracy in Rivers State, rather than the organised Labour that is saddled with the responsibility of defending and protecting the nascent democracy, which is yet to see reasons in the state that we found ourselves.
“Tomorrow, April 18, will be exactly one month since President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in a most undesirable and absurd pronouncement on the Rivers State crisis declared a state of emergency and the suspension of the democratically elected Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, his Deputy Prof. Ngozi Ordu and members of the State House of Assembly for six months.
“To cap it all, the President appointed Vice Admiral Ibolk-Ete lbas (retd) as the Sole administrator of the state in what we considered a brazen and fragrant desecration of democracy and the rule of law.
“Furthermore, democratic and legally obligatory pre-requisites we also thrown overboard by the National Assembly through their voice-vote endorsement of President Tinubu’s state of emergency declaration in place
of the constitutionally prescribed two-thirds majority votes.
“Gentlemen of the Press, as far as the former Labour Leaders Forum is concerned, such mindless take over and destroying the fundamental principle of democracy in such an absurd manner in Rivers State amounts to suspension of democracy and the constitution of Nigeria and inviting military dictatorship which the Sole Administrator has begun to accomplish.”
