‘Supreme Court’s justices afraid to adjudicate on Rivers’ emergency rule’

Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria have been accused of being possibly afraid to adjudicate on the groundbreaking legal challenge to the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State and the suspension of Governor Sim Fubara  by President Bola Tinubu.

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) stated this simin a statement signed by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, on Sunday.

“HURIWA has also rationalised the unacceptable delay to mean that the Supreme Court of Nigeria may be tacitly adopting the delay tactics to unwittingly compel the Appellants to reach out to the defendant for political solution rather than the nation’s highest court to make a definitive pronouncement to settle this thorny constitutional issues once and for all.

“We think that the Supreme Court of Nigeria is doing the greatest disservice to the country by the refusal or undue delay of the Chief Justice of Nigeria to constitute to the best of our knowledge  as members of the public, a panel of Justices to adjudicate on the salient constitutional questions posed to them in the groundbreaking legal challenge instituted since April 8th 2025 against the ill-fated decision of President Bola Tinubu to suspend a sitting governor even when there is nowhere in the Nigerian Constitution that gives the holder of the office of president the self-destructive powers of unseating a sitting governor of a state. We in HURIWA stand to be corrected that the delay is anything but ominous and toxic.

“The only logical explanation for this unfair tactics of the Supreme Court is to say that may be it is because of the fear of the unknown.  But if the Justices of the nation’s highest court are jittery and refusing to fix the dates for hearing of this groundbreaking legal challenge by the 11 PDP Governors against the suspension of a sitting governor, then we can say that there is a much deeper conspiratorial plot to destabilise constitutional democracy and achieve total state capture. We pray that we are wrong.

“The Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria ought to be patriotic enough to entertain this matter and take a decision one way or the other instead of this unnecessary delay that has now made the All Progressives Congress’s national hierarchy to employ blackmail tactics against some PDP Governors who are scared of losing their return bid to their offices in the next election and thereby forcing these scared PDP Governors to either cross carpet to APC or organise media charades to endorse President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a second term,” the statement said.

The rights group expressed disappointment that after nearly a month that the PDP Governors filed this legal challenge before the nation’s apex court, the good people of Nigeria have been left in the lurch regarding the status of the case and the dates for commencement of this litigation is shrouded in secrecy.

“We know that the Learned Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria must be aware that the eyes and minds of millions of Nigerians are on this very matter just as millions of people all over the World are waiting for the Supreme Court of Nigeria to make a pronouncement on the critical question of whether the President of the Federation has the constitutional powers to illegally unseat a sitting governor and temporarily dissolve the state legislature.

“It is a thing of surprise that such a landmark matter is being treated in such a lackadaisical and ‘We don’t give a damn’ attitude by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. We are urging the Supreme Court of Nigeria to wake up and fix a definitive date for hearing and deciding on this critical matter that touches on the heart of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy,” it added.