“I am no more your leader”: Fubara's handover to Chinda and Wike splits Rivers

The words: at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, 27 October, Fubara told supporters: “I am no more your leader. Stop calling me ‘my leader, my leader’… We are now in one house. And because we have one house, there is no issue about who is the leader.”

The line-up: Hon. Kingsley Chinda is the governorship candidate of the APC and the six-party Rainbow Coalition, with Major Jack as his running mate. According to The Tide, Fubara described Wike as the coalition's “common leader”. Chinda says the coalition ends winner-takes-all politics.

The critics: commentator Franklin Uket told Vanguard “the governor has been stampeded and bullied out of power.” The Paramount Ruler of Egwebe in Andoni, a former ally, called it “not an excellent decision”, and Fubara supporter Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe said Wike “wanted to take total power from Fubara.”

The other view: PANDEF president Prof. Godknows Igali said “it is Fubara's right to relinquish authority or to hold onto it.” Former Rep Ogbonna Nwuke: “You can't have two masters in the same boat.” APC national leaders have also affirmed Fubara as the party's leader in Rivers, Vanguard reports.

How we got here: Fubara left the PDP for the APC on 9 December 2025. Between 16 August and 7 October 2026, the Wike-led coalition held peace meetings with him at his Port Harcourt home, and the Assembly reversed a move to declare the seats of three pro-Fubara lawmakers vacant.

The challenger: the ADC's candidate is former Secretary to the State Government Gabriel Pidomson, who won the primary with 112,068 votes and named David Okumgba as running mate. Rival aspirant Farah Dagogo still claims the ticket.

What to watch: whether Fubara's supporters follow him into the coalition, whether the ADC settles its dispute, and Rivers' 3.7 million voters, the most in the South-South, on 16 January (presidential) and 6 February (governorship).