The Rivers State Government has reacted to the recent statement by a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of the state, Professor Zacchaeus Adangor, SAN, during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme on Thursday, where he claimed that his resignation as a commissioner was due to Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s request for legal action against the contentious eight-point Presidential Proclamation by President Bola Tinubu.
Professor Adangor said he resigned from Fubara’s cabinet because he refused to obey the governor when he allegedly asked him to institute suits to challenge the validity of the Presidential Peace Pact to address the crisis between Governor Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.
He said he was not consulted by the governor before he was redeployed from the Justice Ministry to the Ministry of Special Duties, adding that his redeployment by Governor Fubara was a payment for his stance on the rule of law.
Reacting to Adangor’s claim, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Communication, Joe Johnson, said it is on record that Adangor said he resigned because he did not want to be reassigned.
Johnson, in a statement on Friday, said: “That claim by Zacchaeus Adangor, SAN, to say the least, is a fallacy of the highest order. It is a clear fact that is already in the public domain that Mr Adangor, SAN, personally stated in his letter of resignation on a Ministry of Justice letterhead paper dated 24th April 2024, upon his redeployment as Commissioner for Special Duties (Governor’s Office), wherein he said that he was not going to be reassigned, and added falsely that the Governor was interfering with his work.”
Johnson alluded to the fact that the former Attorney-General of the State has resorted to lies, rather than clear his reputation as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The state government urged Prof. Adangor to provide clarity and transparency regarding his resignation and address the concerns raised by the governor.
He said further: “It is therefore so surprising that instead of clearing himself of the open declaration by His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, that he (Adangor) is a saboteur, the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria has whimsically resorted to cheap blackmail and barefaced falsehood.
“One would have expected the Senior Advocate of Nigeria to respond to that weighty accusation to clear his name and tainted image instead of resorting to an afterthought of twisting the facts simply to divert attention.
“It is of public knowledge that, going by the governor’s antecedents, he cannot and will not and couldn’t have interfered with the work of the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice nor instigated Prof. Adangor to initiate any legal process against the President for his intervention in the Rivers State political crisis orchestrated by those who are hellbent on playing God in the state.”
