Fubara Set To Assert PDP Leadership In Rivers

Despite being sidelined in the last ward and local government congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Rivers State Governor, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara, is set to assert his leadership and take over the structure of the party in Rivers State.
National Point gathered that after securing the backing of the PDP Governors at their last meeting in Jalingo, Taraba State, and a good number among the members of the National Working Committee of the party, the governor has started moves to put arrangements in place to set up a new structure that will be facilitated by the NWC of the party.
The leadership of the Board of Trustees of the PDP had visited Fubara last week in Port Harcourt and pledged their support for him to assume the leadership of the party in the state.
Fubara, who had since his falling out with his predecessor, Chief Nyesom Wike in October, 2023, kept a distance from the leadership of the PDP in Rivers State operating under the control of Wike.
He had instead operated with a rainbow coalition political structure that drew membership from several political parties, including aggrieved members of the PDP under the Simplified Movement. The movement is expected to be the political structure that Fubara is expected to use in the October 5 local government elections. There have been speculations that the movement would collapse into the African Action Congress (AAC) for the purposes of contesting the local government election.
The PDP governors had condemned the exclusion of the governor and his interest in the last ward and local government congresses of the party in Rivers State.
They therefore urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP to review the congress with regard to Rivers State and insist that Governor Fubara is granted his rightful position as the leader of the party in Rivers State.
The communiqué of the governors, which was read by the Chairman of the forum and Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed said, “The Forum notes the political impasse in Rivers State where court judgments are employed to determine the outcome of the party congresses.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum restates its stand with the Governor of Rivers State, and will engage the NWC of our great party to revisit the congress with a view to correcting the anomaly and allowing His Excellency, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, to take his rightful leadership position of the party in the State.”
The meeting, which deliberated on a number of burning national and intra-party issues, also commended the PDP Governors for their matured handling of the #EndBadGovernance protests across the country, and urged the Federal Government to stop the blame game, and face governance squarely by addressing core policy issues with a view to reducing the sufferings of Nigerians.
Senator Mohammed said, “The Meeting deliberated on crucial intra-party and governance matters affecting our states as well as those of overriding national interest and importance.
“The Governors noted with a sigh of relief the end of the #EndBadGovernance protests which was edging to a major national crisis.
“We salute the dexterity of the Governors, especially of the PDP extraction in handling the situation in their respective States with maturity, thereby restraining hoodlums and other unscrupulous elements from hijacking the protests.
“The Forum reiterates that peaceful protests are the inalienable rights of the citizens through which they vent their genuine grievances. The Forum commiserates with the families of those innocent souls that were lost and calls on the Federal Government to ensure fair and speedy trial of those who were arrested.
“The Forum laments that rather than undertake a review of macro-economic and social policies with a view to giving them a human face, the Federal Government has resorted to blackmail.
“We call on Mr. President to show statesmanship by restraining his officials from blame games, that make the sub-nationals look bad by mentioning piecemeal interventions that cannot solve the problem. We remain unshaken in our firm resolve to stand with the suffering Nigerian masses and to take all legitimate steps to ameliorate their plight.”