Nigerian legislative lawyers, under the aegis of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, have dragged President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Court.
The lawyers urged the court to impose sanctions on President Bola Tinubu over the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State.
The lawyers are also seeking imposition of sanctions on the leadership of the National Assembly over their role in the ratification of the emergency rule in the oil rich state.
Recall that Tinubu, in a nationwide broadcast on 18 March 2025, declared a state of emergency in Rivers State.
Justifying the decision, the President said he was “greatly disturbed about the political crisis” in the state and accused Governor Sim Fubara of demolishing the State House of Assembly building.
Fubara and his Deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, were suspended for an initial period of six months. A retired Vice Admiral, Ibas, was appointed as Sole Administrator to take charge of the affairs of the state during the emergency period.
About a month after taking the decision, Tinubu is still under fire from several quarters, with many Nigerians questioning the legality and propriety of the decision.
According to a DailyPost report, ALDRAP had in a letter dated 17th April 2025, had given Tinubu seven days to disclose provisions of the state of emergency proclamation in Rivers State which empowered the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (rtd), to appoint sole administrators for local government areas.
The lawyers threatened to take legal action against the President it he failed to heed the demand.
The lawyers, who are demanding the reversal of the emergency rule declaration, are now asking the ECOWAS court to impose sanctions on Tinubu and other relevant Nigerian officials over the suspension of democratic governance in Rivers.
Defendants in the suit are Tinubu and heads of government of the various ECOWAS member countries, President of the Nigerian Senate, Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, as well as Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Oversight of Rivers State, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
The court document explained that the suit, among other objectives, is aimed at providing the ECOWAS Court of Justice with information and expert perspectives on the critical legal and governance issues arising from the declaration of a state of emergency within a Member State, specifically focusing on the role and responsibilities of legislative bodies including the National Assembly, “and in overseeing such declarations and the actions taken thereunder”.
ALDRAP, in the suit, stressed that the actions taken by Tinubu in imposing emergency rule in Rivers State violated ECOWAS regulations.
happen, we greatly fear that it would incentivise wider democratic backsliding in the region,” the letter said.
Faulting the reasons given by Tinubu for imposing the emergency rule in Rivers, the letter added, “It is important to state for the records that the President must either have been misled or decided to mislead the nation and the entire world by the reasons he gave for the declaration of a state of emergency. The President understands that the so-called crisis in Rivers State never existed beyond a fight between two individuals – the governor and the immediate past governor, who is a close ally of the President and whose side the President has not just since taken but for whose benefit the President has now also acted.”
