Rivers chief magistrate Ejike King George has resigned over President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency and imposition of a quasi-military administration.

Mr George disclosed this in a resignation letter dated April 11, 2025, addressed to the Rivers chief judge through the secretary of the Judicial Service Commission in the state.

Mr George said the president’s six-month suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu and the House of Assembly, and the subsequent appointment of a former naval chief, Ibok-Ete Ibas, as the sole administrator of the oil-rich state, had made remaining in service unconducive.

“This present is intended to convey my decision to voluntarily retire my appointment as magistrate of the judiciary of Rivers State. 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,” Mr George said.

Describing the current system of governance in the state as “alien” and “antithetical to our hallowed profession as legal practitioners and adjudicators,” Mr George stated, “Having put in a whopping 16 out of my 22 years of legal practice into this judiciary as magistrate under successive democratic administrations, I find it difficult to work with the current setting, as doing so would amount to a tacit and naive acquiescence.”

Mr Tinubu had, in a nationwide broadcast in March, explained that his appointment of Mr Ibas as the sole administrator was over security concerns following the 14-month political impasse involving Mr Fubara, FCT minister Nyesom Wike and the Rivers assembly.