The presidency says Vice President Kashim Shettima’s comment at a book launch was not about the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State.
Shettima had at the launch of “OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block,” a book by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, said the ex-AGF was part of those who stopped ex-President Goodluck Jonathan from removing as a governor during the peak of insurgency in Borno State.
The vice president had quoted Adoke as saying that no president can remove an elected official, a remark many have linked to President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of Governor Fubara.
However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha, said Shettima’s comment was misinterpreted.
“We wish to state categorically that Vice President Shettima’s comments were made within the context of acknowledging the author’s professional conduct during his tenure as Attorney General of the Federation—a tribute to his public service record,” Nkwocha said in a statement on Friday.
“His remarks were historical references to events during the Jonathan administration and were intended as a discourse on Nigeria’s constitutional evolution. They served to highlight how complex federal-state tensions have been managed through legal mechanisms and the country’s progress in that regard.”
He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, President Tinubu did not remove Governor Fubara from office. The constitutional measure implemented was a suspension, not an outright removal.
“This action, along with the declaration of a state of emergency, was taken in response to the grave political crisis in Rivers State at the time. The situation was unprecedented, with the State House of Assembly complex under demolition and the Governor facing a looming threat of impeachment by aggrieved members of the legislature. No objective observer can deny that this decisive intervention by the President brought stability and calm to Rivers State.”
Read the full statement below;
The Office of the Vice President @officialSKSM
has noted with serious concern the gross misrepresentation of remarks made by His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, during the public presentation of the book “OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block” by Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), held at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
Certain online news outlets and individuals have distorted the Vice President’s comments in pursuit of a mischievous agenda, twisting his account of how the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan considered removing him from office—then as Governor of Borno State—at the height of the insurgency in the North East region.
This sensational reporting, which strips the Vice President’s remarks of their proper context, ventures into fiction by drawing false equivalence between his personal experience and the state of emergency declared in Rivers State, as well as the subsequent suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
@officialABAT
