Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has anounced the end of the six-month state of emergency imposed on Rivers State, declaring that Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the State House of Assembly will return to office from Thursday, September 18, 2025.
Tinubu, who returned to the country on Tuesday after a 10-day leave in the United Kingdom and France, said in a statement released on Wednesday by the Presidency, that the state of emergency, he proclaimed on March 18, 2025, was necessary to arrest the “total paralysis of governance” that had gripped Rivers State at the time.
According to the statement, Tinubu recalled that the bitter conflict between the governor and 27 lawmakers loyal to the State House of Assembly Speaker had derailed governance in the state and that the country’s Supreme Court affirmed in one of its rulings that “there was no government in Rivers State”.
“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, His Excellency Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Her Excellency 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,” he said.
President Tinubu commended the country’s National Assembly for taking steps immediately, as required by the Constitution, to approve the declaration in the interest of peace and order in Rivers State, after critically evaluating the justification for the proclamation.
He also thanked the traditional rulers and the people of Rivers for their support from the date of the declaration of the state of emergency until it ended.
GIK/APA