Rivers Crisis: Fubara will be governor for eight years – Official

Amidst the political crisis in Rivers State, a local government council chairperson has said that Governor Siminalayi Fubara will be governor of the state for eight years.

Mr Fubara, who is currently doing his first tenure as governor, is engaged in a protracted political battle with his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is the FCT minister. The two estranged allies are fighting for control of the political structure in the oil-rich state.

Chijioke Ihunwo, the chairperson of the caretaker committee that manages the affairs of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the state, made the remark on 11 July in Port Harcourt when a pro-Fubara political group, One Million Youths For Sim, “adopted” him as the chairperson of its Board of Trustees.

Mr Ihunwo posted on X a video clip where he said, “I want to assure all of us that the current governor will be governor for eight years.”

In a post accompanying the clip, Mr Ihunwo said, “Rivers State is too big for one man to pocket” and that Governor Fubara was “resolute in emancipating all of us”.

He said Mr Wike had Rivers State “inside his pocket” when he was the governor.

“I told the youth body that some enemies of the state are bent on hijacking the resources of the state at the detriment of the majority of Rivers people,” he said in his post on X.

Mr Wike is from Obio-Akpor.

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Mr Ihunwo is one of the caretaker committee chairpersons appointed by Mr Fubara to replace Mr Wike backed-former elected chairpersons of the local government councils in Rivers following the expiration of their tenures. He is a vocal critic of Mr Wike.

The political crisis in the Rivers has split the state legislature into two factions and has disrupted governance in the state.