‘The coast is clear’ — Wike says emergency rule in Rivers will end on September 18
Nyesom Wike, the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), says he is optimistic that the state of emergency declared in Rivers state would expire on September 18.
Wike spoke on Saturday after casting his vote in the Rivers LG election at polling unit 007, ward 9 (Rumuepirikom Kingdom), Obia/Akpor LGA.
The FCT minister said the expiration would pave the way for the state house of assembly to resume its legislative duties.
“As far as we are concerned, this election is peaceful, people are trooping out and at the end of the day the election has been conducted successfully and peacefully,” he said.
“I do know that by September 18, the state of emergency will expire, and the state assembly will come back to their job, and we will have a government at the grassroots level.”
He said the conditions were right for lifting the state of emergency since both state and local governments now had representation.
“The coast is clear for the state of emergency to be lifted, being that the state government has its representative and the local government has its representatives, so we are good to go,” he added.
Wike also hailed President Bola Tinubu for making sure that the election was conducted, saying; “since the supreme court has said there is nothing like caretaker committees in local governments, if there are no elected people, funds will not come from the federation accounts to the local government accounts”.
“So, if the emergency rule is lifted and there is no local government election, we will still have the same problem.”
Wike commended the people of the state for turning out in large numbers to participate in the ongoing local government election.
President Tinubu had earlier imposed an emergency rule in Rivers state to prevent a political crisis which resulted to the suspension of Siminalayi Fubara, the governor, his deputy, and the state house of assembly for six months.
