By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

The rift between the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State ended in May after the governor announced his withdrawal from the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in the state.

The duo have been in a protracted political rift since 2023, shortly after Fubara was elected governor. The rift was caused by the desire for control of the political structure in Rivers State between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, who single-handedly picked and endorsed him.

To that extent, President Bola Tinubu declared a six-month emergency rule in the state, suspending the governor and his deputy, Ngọzi Odu.

Fubara also survived three impeachment attempts by Wike-backed state assembly lawmakers.

The FCT minister later vowed Fubara would not go for a second term and presented the former House of Representatives Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda of the APC, as his preferred candidate for the 2027 governorship election in the state.

Claim

However, there is a claim trending online that Governor Fubara is contesting for a second term under the Young Progressives Party (YPP).

An X user, @sani_suleiman (Sani Suleiman) posted (archived here) the governor’s image and claimed that “BREAKING: Fubara Emerges Rivers State’s YPP Governorship Candidate

The post, which has already garnered over 200,000 views as of Monday evening, has thrown people into uncertainty about whether the claim is true or not. While some quickly dismissed the claim as false others believed it to be true.

Reposting the claim, another X user, Olusegun Bakare, wrote, “This same Fubara that has no balls.”

Verification

First, we reviewed news reports and found that months after Fubara’s withdrawal from the governorship race in Rivers, he joined Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, a group set up by the FCT minister to mobilise for President Tinubu’s re-election next year.

While joining the coalition in July, the governor affirmed President Tinubu as his preferred presidential candidate, and  Chinda as the preferred governorship candidate, urging his supporters to back all candidates on the coalition’s platform in the 2027 elections.

Further checks showed that the Independent National Electoral Commission had in late August, listed 19 persons who are contesting for the governorship in Rivers State.

We then discovered that Johnbull Obrasu, NOT Fubara, was listed as the YPP candidate for the Rivers State governorship election.

However, during our searches, we observed that Vanguard reported on Sunday, 20 September, that one Blessing Fubara later emerged as the YPP candidate for the Rivers governorship election. Another news website published the story on Sunday here.

FACTWATCH Nigeria understands that this report by Vanguard was the reason for the claim that “Governor Fubara is contesting under the YPP”, which surfaced online on Sunday.

Verdict

Findings showed that the governor is not contesting for governorship under the YPP, as he has already endorsed Chinda of the APC.

Therefore, the claim is FALSE.