Hon. Farah Dagogo.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Ibok-Ete Ibas, the sole administrator of Rivers, were on Tuesday dragged to court over the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State. The legal action was filed before Adamu Mohammed, a judge at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the state capital, by Farah Dagogo, a former member of the House of Representatives, challenging the legality of the suspension of Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers, and the State House of Assembly.
The defendants in the suit are the President, the Senate president, the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Sole Ddministrator of Rivers State.
Tinubu on March 18, declared emergency rule in the oil-rich State, citing a protracted political crisis.
He also suspended Fubara, his Deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all members of the Rivers State House of Assembly for an initial period of six months.
The President appointed Ibas, a retired naval chief, as the State’s sole administrator.
Last Tuesday, Dagogo, through C. I. Enweluzo, his counsel, filed an ex parte application requesting that all the defendants be served the court processes through substituted means.
In his ruling, Mohammed ordered that court processes should be pasted on the defendants’ last known addresses through courier services.
Ruled the judge: “An order is hereby made for substituted service of the originating summons dated 28th March, 2025, and filed on the 2nd day of April, 2025, and all other accompanying and subsequent processes in this suit, on the defendants by posting same through DHL (courier service) to the last known address of the defendants”.
The judge adjourned the case to May 12 for hearing.
