The Rule of Law and Accountability Centre (RULAAC) has said Nigerians would have been surprised had it been the 10th National Assembly disapproved the state of emergency declared by President Bola Tinubu in Rivers State.

In a chat with MyNigeria, the Executive Director, RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, recalled how the assembly vowed to stand on Tinubu's mandate during their inaugural sitting.

This was as he lamented that democracy in Nigeria is under threat.

He said, "When the Senate President promised that whatever the President wanted, that he will get and that on his mandate.they stood, all of them stood up and were singing 'on your mandate'.

"What would have been surprising is if they didn't endorse it. But I think that our our democracy is under serious threat."

Nwanguma urged Rivers citizens to defend democracy following the suspension of Siminalayi Fubara whom they elected as governor.

He said, "it is about them. It is about their mandates. I think that they should, they should organize and insist that they should be the ones determining who governs them and how they are governed. So rivers people should rise up and defend democracy in their in their states."

ASA