Veteran Nollywood actor and lawyer, Kenneth Okonkwo, has advised Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State to approach the courts to reclaim the six months he allegedly lost during the period of political unrest in the state.
Okonkwo, who featured on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme on Monday, argued that the Constitution guarantees a four-year tenure for governors, stressing that any interruption should not truncate the mandate freely given by the people.
“This is not about antagonising whoever declared the state of emergency,” he said. “It is about the constitutional provisions that Governor Fubara was elected by Rivers people to serve them for four years. Those six months were illegally taken away from him.”
The lawyer recalled that the Supreme Court had previously interpreted tenure matters as sacrosanct, leading to staggered elections in some states. He maintained that the Constitution, under Section 180(2), stipulates that a governor’s tenure runs for four years from the day of swearing-in, regardless of political disruptions.
According to him, Fubara’s tenure should legally run until 29 November 2027, instead of ending in May of the same year.
He said, “If the Federal Government claimed there was a breakdown of law and order in Rivers, then elections should have been shifted by six months, not the governor’s tenure cut short. The people of Rivers voted for four years of Fubara, and they deserve to get exactly that.”
Okonkwo urged the governor to seek redress in court, noting that the people’s mandate must not be undermined.
