…says Rivers election should focus on ending political godfatherism
The Media and Strategic Communications Directorate of the Dumo Lulu-Briggs Governorship Campaign Council has accused the so-called Rainbow Coalition of sponsoring a campaign of calumny against its candidate ahead of the 2027 governorship election in Rivers State.
The campaign council said the alleged attacks by political hirelings were designed to distract Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs from the critical issues confronting the state and undermine his growing political profile.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, and signed by its Director of Media and Strategic Communications, Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo, the council described those behind the attacks as political mercenaries allegedly recruited from the same Kalabari ethnic group as Lulu-Briggs to give credibility to their campaign.
It, however, declared that the candidate would not be distracted by what it described as orchestrated character assassination, insisting that the 2027 election should be about the future of Rivers State and the restoration of power to the people.
According to the statement, the central issue in the forthcoming election is how to free the state from what it called the grip of a self-appointed political godfather and prevent the continued conversion of public wealth into private estates.
The campaign council accused former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of being responsible for the political crisis that culminated in the declaration of a state of emergency and the appointment of a Sole Administrator on March 18, 2025.
It also alleged that about N300 billion of the state’s resources was spent during the period of emergency rule, while citing a BusinessDay report which it said put the state’s annual economic losses at about N5 trillion, alongside a collapse in investor confidence.
The statement further accused the former governor of concentrating development in one local government area at the expense of other parts of the state, leaving civil servants without promotions and pensioners without their entitlements for eight years.
It also listed the cancellation of overseas scholarships for Rivers students, abandonment of the Buguma Fish Farm, Songhai Farms and Banana Plantation, as well as the abandonment of the original Trans-Kalabari Road project among the alleged failures of the previous administration.
The campaign organisation equally accused Wike of being responsible for the burning of the Rivers State House of Assembly chambers and the political manoeuvres that allegedly denied Governor Siminalayi Fubara a second term in office.
It further alleged that the former governor handpicked candidates for elective positions in the state, arguing that such practices had undermined democratic choice and popular participation.
The council maintained that these issues, rather than attacks on its governorship candidate, should dominate political discussions ahead of the 2027 election.
It challenged political actors to focus on what it described as the danger of a fourth term of political godfatherism and the need to return the state’s resources and political authority to its people.
“The Dumo Lulu-Briggs Governorship Campaign will, therefore, remain focused and will not be distracted by the antics of these political predators,” the statement declared.
It reaffirmed the campaign’s commitment to the people of Rivers State and what it described as the task of restoring their rightful ownership of the state.
“Rivers State belongs to the people,” the campaign council declared.
