New Delhi, Sept. 18 -- Nigeria's president lifted emergency rule and removed the suspension of a state governor and lawmakers in oil-rich Rivers State on Wednesday after six months of emergency rule in response to a protracted political crisis and oil pipeline vandalism, according to a statement on social media.

The choice to impose emergency rule was meant "to arrest the drift toward anarchy in Rivers State," said President Bola Tinubu in a statement defending the choice.

"This is undoubtedly a welcome development for me and a remarkable achievement for us. I therefore do not see why the state of emergency should exist a day longer than the six months I had pronounced at the beginning of it," he said.

The crisis in the southern oil-pr...