Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has strongly criticized the Nigeria Police over their alleged brutal suppression of anti-emergency protesters in Ahoada East Local Government Area, describing the act as a dangerous show of bias and injustice.

The protest, led by women from the Elleye and Engine communities, erupted following President Bola Tinubu’s recent declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State — a move that has intensified political tensions in the region. While a pro-emergency protest in Port Harcourt occurred under peaceful and protected conditions, the anti-emergency demonstration in Ahoada was met with tear gas and forceful dispersal by police.

Viral footage from the scene showed elderly women visibly distressed, with some collapsing or gasping for air after the tear gas assault. One woman, stripped to the waist and weeping, had to be supported by fellow demonstrators as she stumbled to safety.

Despite the police crackdown, the women remained resolute, chanting slogans like “We want Fubara” and “No to emergency rule,” while kneeling in the streets and calling for peace and a return to constitutional governance.

Governor Fubara’s Special Adviser on Electronic Media, Jerry Omatsogunwa, condemned the unequal treatment of protesters by security forces.

“You can see old women who came out in Ahoada to exercise their right to protest… the police teargassed them. One of them fainted,” he said.
“Meanwhile, those protesting in support of the emergency rule in Port Harcourt were protected by the police. This shows the police are not neutral.”

Omatsogunwa hailed the women protesters as “heroes of democracy” and accused the newly appointed sole administrator and the state’s police commissioner of harboring political ambitions and bias.

“We’ve heard the sole administrator is nursing a governorship ambition in Cross River and may be using his position in Rivers to fund that goal,” he alleged.