Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described President Bola Tinubu’s declaration a state of emergency in Rivers State as an assault on democracy, adding that by the action, the federal structure in Rivers State had been compromised.
Atiku, a former Presidential candidate under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 elections said the development reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.
The former VP who blamed the president for the crisis in Rivers, said the President has eroded the peace negotiated by late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Atiku, who immediately took to his X handle to condemned the President’s action said “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.
“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent,” Atiku said.
Continuing, the former Vice President said it is a failure on the part of the president that the Niger Delta region has been thrown back into era of unrest, adding that the president should bear responsibility for the bombing of pipeline infrastructure in the region.
“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,” Atiku stated.
