Strong indications emerged on Thursday night that the subsisting emergency rule in Rivers State may be over soon as President Bola Tinubu brokered truce among the key gladiators in the crisis that precipitated the proclamation of emergency rule.
Pictures of the meeting between the president and the Rivers feuding characters had flooded the social space without specific details of what transpired at the meeting believed to have been held at the residence of the president.
In some of the pictures, the president was with the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his estranged leader, who is also the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
In other pictures, the president posed for a group picture with not only Fubara and Wike, but also with members of the state House of Assembly and some leaders in Rivers State, equally considered stakeholders.
Yet, some other pictures showed Fubara with Wike and others, who attended the meeting leaving the residence of the president together, either for other meetings or to retire for the morning.
Since Tuesday, March 18, when Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers in the wake of the crisis between Fubara and Wike, the suspended governor had met with the president a couple of times with a view to resolving the crisis.
Although his repeated visits to the Villa and the Lagos home of the president, had sparked speculations that Fubara, too, might likely join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as part of the soft-landing deal being negotiated for his return to office, he had been unable to make any headway until Thursday night.
Sources had also hinted that while Fubara had made overtures to join the APC long before the emergency declaration, Wike had deliberately blocked him, using his closeness to the president and the Villa to fend him off.
However, with the emergency rule still in play, it became apparent that Fubara had to make peace with Wike to return to office and also take other critical decisions, like joining the APC.
But with the meeting on Thursday night, sources claimed the president was inclined to lifting the emergency rule in the state, a development that may come any moment from now.
While details of the peace meeting were not made public, observers were of the view that Fubara could not be blamed for whatever decisions he might take going forward, being a result of his evident helplessness.
Deji Elumoye and Blessing Ibunge
