APC Boss Yilwatda Drops Bombshell, Says Party Didn’t Force Rivers Governor Out of Primary; Insists Nyesom Wike is Still Not an APC Member

The leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has moved aggressively to dismantle the conspiracy theories surrounding the explosive collapse of Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s primary election manual, maintaining that the Rivers State helmsman made a personal, voluntary decision to abandon his 2027 re-election ticket.

Appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda flatly rejected trending claims that the party’s national taskforce deliberately engineered a toxic environment to force Fubara out of the race. In a parallel disclosure that has set off fresh debates across the country’s political trenches, Yilwatda also reminded the public that FCT Minister Nyesom Wike remains, on paper, outside the ruling party’s formal register.

“Governor Fubara wrote officially to inform the party of his voluntary withdrawal from the primary process, citing the need to prioritize absolute peace and stability in Rivers State over personal ambition,” Yilwatda stated during the brief. “The party did not push him out. As for the Minister of the FCT, let me clarify permanently: Nyesom Wike is not a registered member of the All Progressives Congress. He is a PDP chief working in an APC-led federal cabinet.”

Despite Yilwatda’s clean administrative narrative, tracking the recent data inside the Rivers APC chapter reveals a brutal structural bottleneck that left the governor with almost zero room to execute a successful primary campaign. During the party’s high-stakes screening manual, the state screening committee heavily dominated by stakeholders loyal to Wike, dropped an aggressive hammer on Fubara’s camp, disqualifying nearly all his key legislative and grassroots loyalists over technical flaws in their documentation.

Faced with a rigged layout where the party’s delegate portals were completely locked down by his estranged political godfather, Fubara executed a rapid tactical exit alongside former governorship candidate Tonye Cole and party chieftain Kelly George. Their simultaneous exit has triggered a total transition of power within the state chapter, clearing an unblocked highway for House of Representatives member Ogudu Kingsley Chinda to stand as the sole dominant option on the ballot.

While Wike’s loyalists are already celebrating the outcome as a massive value-addition that secures their ultimate grip on the state’s political machinery ahead of the 2027 transition cycle, independent monitors warn that the crisis is far from over. By retreating from the APC primary trenches, Fubara has protected his immediate administrative survival shield, but he has also opened up a fresh, highly unpredictable portal. Political watchdogs are already predicting that the governor might activate a swift technical rescue of his re-election script by moving his entire machinery into an alternative opposition alliance before the final national candidate windows are permanently closed.