The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has thrown its weight behind Vice President Kashim Shettima’s remark that the President does not have the power to remove an elected Governor.
The VP had on Thursday while recounting how former President Goodluck Jonathan tried to remove him as governor of Borno State, said the President lacks the power to remove an elected Governor.
His remark came amid the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu.
The Presidency had in a statement earlier on Friday said the VP’s remark had no link to the Rivers State crisis. But ADC described the rebuttal was “a mere attempt at political correctness”.
In a statement released by Interim National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party emphasized that the truth must not be lost in the fog of political correctness, highlighting that the VP needs to stand by his forthright and courageous statement.
According to the ADC, the statement affirmed that President Tinubu doesn’t have the constitutional power to remove an elected councilor, not to talk of a sitting governor.
Part of the statement reads, “For avoidance of doubts, the breakdown of law and order that the presidency has deployed as pretext to overthrow democratic order in Rivers State is nothing compared with the rampaging scourge of Boko Haram that abducted more than 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno state, slaughtered school boys in Buni Yadi, Yobe State and challenged the very sovereignty of Nigeria.
“Yet, in declaring a state of emergency in the affected states under these dire circumstances, President Jonathan recognized the limits of his constitutional powers and he respected it.
“This was the truth that the Vice President reminded us of at the Book Launch of former Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke on Thursday. It was not faux pas, it was not Freudian slip, it was the truth anchored on the facts of history
“In this regard, the ADC therefore calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately restore democratic governance in Rivers State, cease all illegal interference in the affairs of the state, and halt the unconstitutional actions that have upended democratic rule in that state.
“We further demand that the President tenders an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people for this abuse of power and the blatant disregard for constitutional order that has played out under his watch.”
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