The Rivers State National Assembly caucus has slammed Senator Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West) over his recent remarks on President Bola Tinubu’s Democracy Day address, warning him to stay out of the state’s political affairs.
Dickson had taken aim at President Tinubu and the Senate leadership on Thursday, accusing them of enabling “unconstitutional governance” in Rivers State by failing to acknowledge the ongoing political turmoil in the region during the June 12 joint parliamentary session.
Speaking to journalists after the session, the former Bayelsa governor said the President’s silence on the crisis in Rivers sent a “chilling message” and likened the Senate’s handling of his attempt to raise the matter to military-style suppression. “My right to speak on a constitutional aberration was trampled upon,” Dickson said. “This is not democracy. This is how military regimes operate.”
He further accused the Tinubu administration of providing federal backing to illegitimate political structures in Rivers, calling the omission in the President’s speech a betrayal of the spirit of June 12 — Nigeria’s symbolic day of democratic victory.
But in a strongly worded response on Friday, leader of the Rivers NASS caucus, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, denounced Dickson’s comments as reckless, inflammatory, and unbecoming of a sitting senator, especially one with a law enforcement background.
“The caucus cautions Senator Dickson to refrain from further inciting the people of Rivers State,” Chinda said at a press conference at the National Assembly Complex. “We call on security agencies to closely monitor his utterances and actions, and urge the Senate Committee on Ethics to investigate his unparliamentary conduct.”
The caucus defended President Tinubu’s handling of the political standoff in Rivers, saying the President acted decisively to prevent a total breakdown of law and order. “Without that timely intervention, the crisis would have escalated beyond control,” Chinda stated.
They also pushed back against Dickson’s claims of federal overreach, asserting that the measures taken were in line with constitutional provisions. “The so-called state of emergency in Rivers was not unconstitutional,” the caucus said. “It falls within the powers granted under Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution to protect democratic institutions under threat.”
The group concluded by warning against what it called “external provocations aimed at destabilising Rivers State,” saying Dickson’s interventions were “politically motivated and dangerously misleading.”
