- Safiu Kehinde
A group of women has on Monday staged a rally in Port Harcourt in support of the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers state.
NPO Reported that President Bola Tinubu had on the 18th of March declared the state of emergency over the unresolved political crisis involving the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and the Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers House of Assembly.
The President slammed six months suspension on Fubara, his deputy, Professor Ngozi Odu, and members of the Assembly.
In the governor’s stead, Tinubu appointed former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), as the state’s sole administrator, who had suspended all political appointees on assumption to office.
In what marked the first ever public gathering since the declaration of the emergency, women cladded in white staged a rally at the state’s capital, Port Harcourt, in support of the state of emergency.
According to report, this was organized in response to a protest against the state of emergency by another faction of women under the aegis of Rivers Women Unite for Sim (RWUS).
The RWUS had called for the reinstatement of Siminalayi Fubara while faulting the emergency rule.
Reacting the pro-State of emergency group countered the agitation as they drummed support for the new administration under Ibas.
As captured in a now viral video on X, the women could be heard chanting ‘we have peace’ while carrying placards with inscriptions that read: “State of Emergency Is Constitutional”, “No Tribal War in Rivers State, No More Fubara”, among others.