Lawyers offer divergent views over Fubara’s return after Emergency Rule
Two legal luminaries, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former presidential aide, and Justice Osai Ahiakwo, a public commentator and clergyman, have given sharply divergent views on the winding down of the six-month state of emergency in Rivers State and the fate of suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Obono-Obla insisted the intervention was lawful and necessary, stressing that extraordinary measures were required to restore order
He said, “Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures, six months was sufficient to cleanse the Augean stable in Rivers”.
He added that the suspension of the governor and legislature, and the appointment of a sole administrator, were constitutional tools used to reset governance.
“The declaration of a state of emergency was not a deviation from democracy but a necessary intervention to safeguard it,” he argued.
According to him, Fubara now has an opportunity to come back stronger. “The governor has had time to reflect, reconcile, and return with humility and renewed purpose,” Obono-Obla said.
But Justice Ahiakwo took a starkly opposite stance, warning that the intervention had done more harm than good.
Hear him, “Rather than restore normalcy, the emergency rule was weaponized to capture Rivers’ resources and weaken the governor.”
He described the move as a dangerous abuse of constitutional provisions.
“My heart bleeds at the abuse of Section 305, which has left the state in autopilot and the people in pain,” Ahiakwo lamented.
Ahiakwo likened the declaration to past undemocratic takeovers.
“This was less about security and more akin to a political coup — a dangerous precedent that truncates the people’s mandate.”
While Obono-Obla sees a window for reconciliation and maturity in governance, Ahiakwo insists the scars of the emergency will continue to haunt Rivers politics long after its expiration.
