From Ann Godwin and Obinna Nwaoku (Port Harcourt) 
Chief magistrate resigns over ‘quasi-military’ leadership in state

Barely three days after a group of women in Rivers State staged a protest demanding the reinstatement of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and an end to the emergency rule in the State, two women groups, yesterday, staged another protest in different locations of the State.
 
The first women group whose women were all adorned in white apparel, allegedly supporting the camp of Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, insisted that the emergency rule was constitutional.
 
The group marched from Garrison Junction at about 7:00 a.m. and arrived at the popular Iseac Park, Port Harcourt City Local Council of the state at about 9:00 a.m.
  
The protesting women chanted songs and wielded placards with inscriptions such as ‘Emergency rule is constitutional, ‘Rivers women voted for you but you made us your slaves,’ ‘Investigate Fubara’s bloated contracts awards,’ ‘Say no to dictatorship,’ Rivers women need peace in our state,’ among others.
   
The protesters were led by former Commissioner for Social Welfare, Inime Aguma, an ardent Wike loyalist. Aguma was among the cabinet members who resigned from their appointments when the crisis between Fubara and Wike became intense.
  
The protesters, who denied that they were paid and hired to support the emergency rule in Rivers State, declared that the emergency regime has brought relative calm and peace in the state.
  
Similarly, another women’s group from the Ekpeye axis of the state also staged a peaceful protest at the Mbiama Junction along the East-West Road, yesterday, against the unconstitutional removal of Fubara.
  
Dressed in black attire, the women also chanted songs urging Wike to go to Abuja and leave Rivers people alone. The inscriptions on their placards include, ‘Ibas should leave us alone,’ ‘End to emergency rule in Rivers, Bring back our governor, bring back Sim’.
  
In a show of political alignment, the leader of the women protesters in Port Harcourt, Aguma, expressed support for the appointment of retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas, as the Sole Administrator in the State, saying his leadership has brought peace, and good governance in the state.

MEANWHILE, a Chief Magistrate, Ejike King George, has resigned from the Rivers State Judiciary, citing discomfort with the recent appointment of a “quasi-military administration” to oversee the state’s affairs. 

In his resignation letter dated April 11, 2025, addressed to the state’s Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Amadi, the Chief Magistrate expressed discontent over the direction of the state’s governance, describing it as “alien” and “antithetical” to the values of the legal profession.  The statement reads: “This is intended to convey my decision to voluntarily retire my appointment as a Magistrate of the Rivers State Judiciary.
   
“This difficult and regrettable decision is informed largely by my discomfort with the recent appointment of a quasi-military administration to run the affairs of a modern state like ours.”