A senior figure in the Labour Party has raised alarm over what he describes as an attempt to pressure Vice President Kashim Shettima into retracting a candid and constitutionally grounded statement made at a public event in Abuja.
Ken Eluma Asogwa, Senior Special Adviser on Media to the Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party, Senator Nenadi Usman, asserted in a statement on Saturday, expressing concern over a seeming effort to undermine the office of the Vice President.
At the public presentation of the book “OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block”, authored by former Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), Vice President Shettima had recalled events from 2013, when a state of emergency was declared in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States. At the time, both then-Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and then-Attorney General Adoke had advised President Goodluck Jonathan that the constitution did not empower him to remove any elected officeholder, including a governor, under emergency rule.
Shettima, who was governor of Borno State at the time, praised that principled stance, calling it an example of constitutional fidelity. However, his office later issued a statement seeking to distance his comments from the current political situation in Rivers State, where Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s tenure has come under controversy.
Asogwa decried the vice president’s apparent backtracking as a result of pressure from unnamed quarters, describing it as both troubling and unconstitutional.
“It is disingenuous for the Vice President’s handlers to pretend not to know that Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution has remained unchanged since 2013. That section does not grant the president any authority to remove a sitting governor, even under emergency rule,” Asogwa stated.
He described Shettima’s remarks as “a rare moment of honesty” and condemned any attempt to coerce the vice president into revising or retracting his position.
“If someone of Shettima’s stature, armed with constitutional protections, cannot speak freely on a matter of fact and law, then it speaks volumes about the current state of human rights and democratic expression in Nigeria,” he warned.
Asogwa further called on those allegedly working behind the scenes to intimidate the vice president to desist, stressing that the dignity of the vice presidency and the sanctity of the Constitution must be preserved.
“We commend Vice President Shettima for his candour. Those who seek to silence truth must not be allowed to trample on constitutional democracy. The office of the vice president deserves respect, and so does the Constitution he swore to defend,” he concluded.
The statement comes amid ongoing tensions and legal questions surrounding the political crisis in Rivers State and the broader climate of governance in the country.
