Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has forcefully denied widespread rumours that he has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that he remains a loyal member of the ruling party and that his commitment to its overall interest has not wavered. The clarification came on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, during an inspection tour of the newly completed General Hospital and the remodelled Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Rumuigbo, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, a public event Fubara chose to push back against what he called “drama in the media.” The speculation, which had gained traction on social media and in some news outlets, suggested that he had joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the burgeoning opposition party that has attracted former Labour Party candidate Peter Obi and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso. “I know that there has been a lot of drama in the media; one story or another,” Fubara said. “I am a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and nothing has changed. People should stop using whatever situation that they pick up from the social media or their own interpretation of any situation to present me wrongly. I have not gone anywhere; I’m still a member of the APC and I remain a member.”
The rumours did not emerge in a vacuum. They are the direct product of a bruising political battle in Rivers State, a conflict that has pitted Fubara against his estranged political godfather, Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike. The two men, once inseparable allies who worked together to deliver the state for the APC in the 2023 general election, have been locked in a bitter feud since shortly after Fubara assumed office. The rift has fractured the state’s political structure, polarised the Rivers State House of Assembly into rival factions, and now threatens to tear the party apart ahead of the 2027 elections.
The immediate catalyst for the defection rumours was a pair of incidents that unfolded over the preceding days. Last Sunday, Fubara appeared before the APC governorship screening committee at the Plateau State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, where he spent less than ten minutes before leaving and refusing to speak to journalists. His abrupt exit fuelled speculation that he had been denied the party’s ticket for a second term. At about the same time, the party’s screening committee for House of Assembly aspirants disqualified dozens of candidates perceived to be loyal to the governor, while clearing those aligned with Wike. The symbolism was unmistakable: even within the APC, the minister’s machinery appeared to be tightening its grip.
Wike has not hidden his intentions. In recent interviews, he has accused Fubara of prioritising his 2027 re‑election campaign over governance, citing the governor’s failure to present the state’s budget to the House of Assembly. He has also indicated that he will not support Fubara’s second‑term ambition. But the minister has been careful to frame his opposition not as a personal vendetta but as a defence of internal party democracy, pointing out that the party must follow its own rules and that no individual, not even a sitting governor, is entitled to an automatic ticket. “I am not a native doctor,” Wike said on May 11, dismissing claims that he had manipulated the screening process.
For Fubara, the defection rumours could not have come at a more sensitive time. His political future hangs in the balance of an appeal process initiated by his loyalists, who were among the dozens of aspirants disqualified by the APC screening committee. The appeals committee, chaired by Dr Abdul Mahmud, concluded its two‑day sitting on Wednesday evening, and the outcome of those appeals will determine whether Fubara’s allies can contest the primaries on the APC ticket. If the appeals are dismissed, the governor’s already diminished influence within the party could be further eroded, leaving him increasingly vulnerable to a Wike‑backed challenger.
The political stakes in Rivers State are enormous. As Africa’s largest oil‑producing state and a critical battleground in the 2027 general election, whoever controls Rivers exercises outsized influence over the national political calculus. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has sought to mediate the Wike‑Fubara feud on multiple occasions, cannot afford a messy primary that could split the APC’s vote in a state where the opposition is already regrouping. The NDC, sensing an opening, has been actively courting disaffected APC members, and the rumour that Fubara had defected was, in part, a product of that courtship.
But Fubara, at least for now, is publicly standing his ground. He used the hospital inspection not only to dismiss the defection talk but also to highlight his administration’s achievements, a deliberate effort to remind voters that governance, not gossip, should define his tenure. The Rumuigbo General Hospital, he noted, was a promise made and a promise fulfilled, a tangible benefit to communities that previously lacked accessible healthcare. “Whatever happens, what is important is supporting the overall interest of the party,” he said, a statement that carried a double meaning: it was both a pledge of loyalty and a warning that the party’s interest must not be reduced to a single man’s ambition.
The coming days will be decisive. The appeal committee’s verdict will set the stage for the APC primaries, and Fubara’s fate will be determined not by social media rumours but by the party’s internal machinery. If the governor’s loyalists are reinstated, he may yet secure the ticket and face Wike’s anointed candidate in the general election. If they are not, the defection rumours, which he has vehemently denied, may begin to look less like fiction and more like prophecy. For now, however, Fubara remains where he has always been: in the APC, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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