As Fubara Gives Signs to Leave PDP

      POLITICAL NOTES

With a report indicating last week that the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, had directed all the 23 local government caretaker chairmen in the state and those aspiring to be councillors to contest the forthcoming local government elections on the platform of the All People’s Party (APP), it is now a matter of time for him to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The elections are scheduled for October 5, 2024.

Fubara is losing control of the PDP structure in the state to the former governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

Wike has maintained significant control over the PDP structure in the state, causing friction between the two leaders.

With the local government elections fast approaching, Fubara’s loyalists’ defection to the APP is expected to reshape the political dynamics in the state.

The APP, previously an unknown party in the region, now stands to gain considerable traction, backed by the governor and the incumbent local government chairmen.

Sources close to the governor informed THISDAY that the governor was pushed to the wall when the acting National Chairman of the PDP, IIiya Damagum handed over the party’s structure in the state to Wike by recognising the minister’s congresses.

Damagum’s action was seen by political analysts as a slight on the PDP governors who had resolved to help Fubara assume control of the party’s structure in line with the tradition of political parties in the country.

With no future for Fubara and his loyalists in the PDP, it is not surprising that APP is their next option. 

Last week, a faction of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) led by the party’s National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, had claimed that it had endorsed the governor as the leader of the party in the state.

 However, this decision did not enjoy the support of Damagum and other NWC members.

 Ajibade, who led some members of the NWC on a solidarity visit to Bauchi State, Governor Bala Mohammed, restated Fubara’s leadership of the party in Bauchi.

With the planned defection of the governor and his loyalists, many are wondering if the PDP would want to lose the governor or call Wike’s bluff.