Governors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have warned that the state of emergency declared in Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu will exacerbate crises, and deepen mistrust and insecurity in the country.

The governors also said they would subject Section 305 (3) of the Constitution, which the President relied on to suspend democracy in Rivers State, to judicial interpretation.

“This authoritarian shenanigan is unacceptable and cannot stand,” the governors said in a statement by the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Bala Mohammed.

They accused the president of emboldening the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, stating that Tinubu’s silence on the active role Wike played in the Rivers impasse, “is golden and enabling.”

According to the governors, Wike has become a law unto himself, and he is playing out the president’s script.

“Now we know. This is totally unstatesmanly, biased, and divisive,” the Chairman said.

Mohammed who is also governor of Bauchi State, reminded Tinubu that he who goes to the court of equity must go with clean hands.

He stated that “this unwarranted but premeditated attack on Rivers State and the Peoples Democratic Party and other opposition parties” is the greatest threat to democracy in Nigeria.

“It is an ill wind that will blow no one any good. It is a dangerous course of action that will not only endanger our hard-won democracy, but will exacerbate the crises in the nation, deepen mistrust, elevate security threats, destroy the economy, and our national cohesion and stability,” he further warned.

The governor noted the reaction of the of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) through its President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, over the purported suspension of democracy in Rivers State, and said PDP governors aligned with the NBA’s position.

“Mr President is therefore called upon to listen to wise counsel and the voice of reason, as well as accept that he made grievous mistakes and acted in haste, and reverse this atrocious and retrograde decision before it is too late,” he advised.

He further promised that the PDP governors will stand with Governor Siminalayi Fubara who is the Vice chairman of the forum and the people of Rivers State “at this very difficult and trying moment of the state’s political history.

“There is no other time that our philosophy of ‘touch one, touch all’ is more apt than now.”