Former presidential spokesman Laolu Akande has said that Siminalayi Fubara should have been the first person to challenge his suspension as the governor of Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu.
According to Channels TV, it was reported that Akande explained that if Tinubu had been suspended as Lagos State governor between 1999 and 2007, he would have immediately gone to the Supreme Court to fight it. He recalled that when Tinubu was in the opposition as Lagos governor, he took legal action against then-President Olusegun Obasanjo for seizing local government funds.
The former presidential aide criticized Fubara for waiting until seven governors from his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), filed a case at the Supreme Court to challenge his six-month suspension.
Akande said Fubara lacked courage and insisted that it was illegal for an elected president to remove an elected governor in the manner it was done.
He said, “The first thing Governor Siminalayi Fubara ought to do, if he knew what he was doing was to go to court. And to tell his people that what has happened in Rivers State is against the law, but he could not find the courage.”
Further talking, he said, “How can I be a governor and the president who was also elected is asking me to go away ?”
Akande stated that if he were in Fubara’s position, he would step aside to avoid any trouble but would immediately take the matter to court. He said he would remind the people who elected him that the president had asked him to leave, which he believed was wrong, and he would fight it legally. According to him, this was the way to strengthen democracy, emphasizing that it was not just about individuals wearing Agbada (flowing gowns).