The Rivers State Government has reacted to the allegations made by former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Zaccheus Adangor, SAN, that he resigned from his position as Commissioner for Special Duties due to Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s interference.
Adangor claimed in an interview on Channels TV programme, Politics Today, that he left the Rivers State Executive Council because Governor Fubara wanted him to initiate legal action against the contentious 8-point Presidential Proclamation by President Bola Tinubu, but he refused.
In rebuttal, Warisenibo Joe Johnson, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, has dismissed Adangor’s claims as “a fallacy of the highest order.”
Johnson stated that it was surprising that instead of clearing himself of the open declaration by Governor Fubara that he (Adangor), is a “saboteur”, the former Attorney-General has “whimsically resorted to cheap blackmail and barefaced falsehood”.
In a statement released to the press in Port Harcourt on Friday, Johnson noted that based on the governor’s antecedents, he could not and would not have interfered with the work of the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, nor would he have 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.
The statement partly read, “It is a clear fact that is already in the public domain that Mr. Adangor SAN personally stated in his letter of resignation on Ministry of Justice letter headed 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.
“It is therefore so surprising that instead of clearing himself of the open declaration by His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, GSSRS that he (Adangor, SAN), 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 the resort to afterthought of twisting the facts, simply to divert attention.
“It is 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 instigate 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.
“This is because, we have the facts on why Prof. Zaccheus Adangor, SAN hastily resigned from the State Executive Council when it was discovered the type of person he is.
“Most shocking is that as a professor of law, Prof. Adangor used frivolously, the official letter headed paper of Ministry of Justice, which was not to be, to write his letter of resignation instead of his personal letter heading.
“We therefore use this medium to challenge Professor Zaccheus Adangor, SAN to come clean by telling Rivers people, and indeed the world the truth, the whole truth and the only truth about his escapades.”