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Strikes Out PDP Suit Challenging Rivers State of Emergency Declaration
- Safiu Kehinde
The Supreme Court has on Monday affirmed President Bola Tinubu’s constitutional power to declare emergency rule and suspend elected officials in any part of the country.
The apex court made this know while striking out a suit filed by Adamawa State and 10 other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)–led states challenging Tinubu’s emergency rule declaration in Rivers State.
According to reports, the court, in a split decision of six to one, struck out the suit, stressing that the plaintiffs failed to establish any cause of action capable of invoking the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction.
Justice Mohammed Idris, the lead judge, ruled that the 11 PDP-controlled states did not demonstrate the existence of any actionable dispute between them and the Federation that would warrant the exercise of the court’s original jurisdiction.
He further affirmed that the declaration a state of emergency in any state where there is a threat of a breakdown of law and order, or where the situation risks degenerating into chaos or anarchy, is within the constitutional power of the President.
According to Mohammed, Section 305 of the Constitution empowers the President to deploy extraordinary measures to restore normalcy where emergency rule is declared.
He however noted that the section was not specific on the nature of the extraordinary measures, thereby granting the President the discretion on how to go about it.
Recall that the PDP- state government had dragged Tinubu to court in the wake of his March 2025 declaration of state of emergency on Rivers amid political crisis rocking the state.
The President had also declared the suspension of the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and all members of the Rivers House of Assembly.
He would however broker truce between Fubara and the lawmakers as well as the governor’s predecessor, Nyesom Wike, June.
The settlement paved way for the Fubara return in September following Tinubu’s lift of his suspension.