Lawyer and activist Barrister Deji Adeyanju strongly disagreed with President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.

Displeased by the move, Adeyanju likened the actions to those taken by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

In an interview with Pulse Nigeria, Adeyanju stated that the president lacks the constitutional power to suspend an elected governor or unilaterally impose emergency rule.

He said, “The governor is not an appointee of the president; he is an elected official, just like the president himself. What Tinubu has done is completely outside his constitutional powers.

According to Adeyanju, the president cannot simply wake up one morning, after eating Amala, and declare a state of emergency in an opposition-controlled state. This is nothing but a civilian coup.”

Citing Section 305 of the Nigerian Constitution, Adeyanju explained that a state of emergency can only be declared if law and order have completely collapsed and if conventional security forces, particularly the police, have failed to restore normalcy.

“This administration is beginning to feel like a military regime,” he added, as he recounted how Tinubu, as a member of the defunct NADECO group, once opposed similar actions under General Sani Abacha’s military government.

Adeyanju also pointed out that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, stands to gain politically from his role in the Rivers crisis.

“Wike should be investigated for the pipeline explosion in Rivers. In other states, where hundreds have been killed, no state of emergency was declared. Yet in Rivers, where no one was killed, Tinubu moves in. Of course, this is political,” he said.

Adeyanju charged the Rivers State Government to challenge the decision in court, insisting that only the judiciary or an impeachment process can lawfully remove a governor.

“The way forward is for the Supreme Court to decide: Does the president have the power to suspend a governor? The answer is clear—he does not,” he concluded.