President Tinubu Announces End To Emergency Rule In Rivers As Gov. Fubara

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President Bola Tinubu has announced the suspension of emergency rule in Rivers State, which began six months ago, paving the way for the immediate return of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the Deputy Governor, Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly led by its Speaker, Right Honourable Martins Amaewhule

President Tinubu, who announced this in a statement he signed on Wednesday, explained that from the intelligence available to him, there was a new spirit of understanding, “a robust readiness, and potent enthusiasm on the part of all the stakeholders in Rivers State for an immediate return to democratic governance”.

This, he said, was undoubtedly a welcome development for him and a remarkable achievement for the country.

“I therefore do not see why the state of emergency should exist a day longer than the six months I had pronounced at the beginning of it"

“It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare that the emergency in Rivers State of Nigeria shall end with effect from midnight today. The Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and the speaker, Martins Amaewhule, will resume work in their offices from 18 September 2025,” Tinubu declared 

He recalled that the state of emergency in Rivers became inevitable following what he described as a “total paralysis of governance” in Rivers that left the governor and the House of Assembly unable to work together.

The President said the crisis also affected critical economic assets of the state, including oil pipelines, which were being vandalised.

He stated that his intervention and that of other well-meaning Nigerians to resolve the conflict proved abortive as both sides stuck to their guns to the detriment of peace and development of Rivers State.

“The State House of Assembly was crisis-ridden, such that members of the House were divided into two groups. Four members worked with the governor, while 27 members opposed the governor.

“The latter group supported the Speaker. As a result, the governor could not present any Appropriation Bill to the House, to enable him to access funds to run Rivers State’s affairs.

“That serious constitutional impasse brought governance in the State to a standstill. Even the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments in a series of cases filed by the executive and the legislative arms of Rivers State against each other, held that there was no government in Rivers State” Tinubu said.

“It therefore became painfully inevitable that to arrest the drift towards anarchy in Rivers State, I was obligated to invoke the powers conferred on me by Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to proclaim the state of emergency.

“The offices of the Governor, Deputy Governor, and elected members of the State House of Assembly were suspended for six months in the first instance. The six months expire today, September 17, 2025,” he added