Ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar criticized President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State as “political manipulation and outright bad faith.”
Atiku accused the president of being a “vested partisan actor” in the crisis in the state, alleging his government either initiated or did not act to prevent the crisis.
“His blatant refusal or calculated negligence in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful,” Atiku said in a Tuesday statement posted on X.
He also criticized the incompetence of security operations that resulted in the destruction of national infrastructure in Rivers, and the President himself was at fault, he added.
“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility,” he said.
“Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the Federal Government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” he added.
Atiku also accused Tinubu of reversing the peace achieved in the Niger Delta under former President Umaru Yar’Adua, stating that his administration has thrown the region “back into an era of violent unrest and instability.”
The former Vice President called on Nigerians to reject what he termed as a political scheme, insisting that the situation in Rivers should not be used as a tool for partisan interests.
