Emergency rule: President can suspend elected officials – Supreme Court

Emergency rule: President can suspend elected officials – Supreme Court

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

The Supreme Court, on Monday, affirmed the constitutional powers of the President to declare a state of emergency in any state of the federation to avert the breakdown of law and order.

A seven-member panel of the apex court, in a split decision of six-to-one, equally declined to fault the

suspension of elected officials in states under emergency rule.

However, it stressed that such suspension, though necessary to ensure that the prevailing situation in the state did not degenerate into chaos or anarchy, it must be confined to a limited period.

The judgement followed the dismissal of a suit that 11 states of the federation filed to challenge what they termed as President Bola Tinubu’s unconstitutional actions in Rivers State.
The states, which were controlled by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, through their respective Attorneys-General, queried President Tinubu’s statutory powers to suspend a serving governor, the deputy governor, and members of the State House of Assembly, from office, after the proclamation of emergency rule.

They prayed the apex court to declare that based on provisions of sections 1(2), 5(2), and 305 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the president “has no powers whatsoever or vires to suspend a democratically elected governor and deputy governor of a state in the federation of Nigeria under the guise of or pursuant to the proclamation of a state of emergency in the state of the federation by the president, including the states of the federation represented by the plaintiff.

The plaintiffs equally prayed the court to declare that President Tinubu had no power to suspend a democratically elected House of Assembly of a state pursuant to Sections 192 (4) (6) and 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

As well as to declare that the suspension of Governor Siminalaye Fubara, his deputy and members of the Rivers State Assembly was unconstitutional, unlawful, illegal and utterly in gross violation of provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.