Leaders of the Ijaw Youth Council, Eastern Zone, have filed a lawsuit before the ECOWAS Court of Justice, challenging the Federal Government over what they describe as the illegal suspension of Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and other elected officials by President Bola Tinubu.
The youth leaders, led by Ibiso Harry, also contest Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in the state.
In the suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/18/25, the Applicants are urging the regional court to issue an order to set aside or quash the suspension of elected officials in Rivers State.
They also seek the court’s intervention to reinstate democratic institutions and structures that were dismantled following the state of emergency declaration.
The Applicants also seek an order to set aside all actions, decisions, policies, and directives issued by the Sole Administrator appointed by President Tinubu on March 18 to oversee the affairs of Rivers State for the next six months.
The Ijaw youth leaders argue that the removal of Governor Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly is a direct violation of their fundamental human rights.
They claim that President Tinubu’s actions have unlawfully stripped them of their democratic rights and that of the people of Rivers State, both individually and collectively.
“By so doing, the Defendant has unlawfully taken away the democratic rights of the Applicants and that of the population of Rivers State both individually and collectively,” the youth leaders asserted in their court documents.
They further argued that the actions of President Tinubu have plunged Rivers State into an unconstitutional and undemocratic form of governance, leaving the people of the state politically emasculated and deprived of their duly elected leaders.
The Applicants maintain that Tinubu’s actions are contrary to the principles of democracy and undermine the very essence of constitutional governance.
They argue that by disrupting the democratic order in Rivers State, the president has challenged the democratic practice and constitutional authenticity of Nigeria as a whole.
“The implication therefore is that the applicants and the people of Rivers State have lost their existence and dignity as human beings, having been politically emasculated by the loss of the values that accompany democratic governance and deprived of leaders duly elected by them in the democratic space,” the Applicants stated.
They also described the president’s actions as an “absoluteness in determining the existence and functioning of democratic systems in national sub-units,” calling it a direct attack on entrenched democratic systems and the constitutional order.
The Ijaw youth leaders emphasize that a state of emergency should not be used as a guise for undermining the executive powers of the Governor or usurping the legislative authority of the state.
They argue that such actions create a dangerous precedent for the erosion of democratic values and threaten the very idea of freedom and constitutional democracy.
“A state of emergency cannot be a guise or subterfuge for the usurpation of the executive functions of the Governor or the exercise of the law-making powers of the legislature,” they added.
The Applicants’ legal team, led by Chief Festus Ogwuche, filed the affidavit in support of their legal action. As of now, no date has been set for the hearing of the case.