“How Fubara Made Us Dump Atiku, Work For Tinubu”  – Abiye Sekibo

By Adesina Soyooye

Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 General Elections, must be shaking his head in utter this disbelief. For, if he decides to run for the Presidency again in 2027, his Rivers State core supporters  in 2023 will not be available for him.

Until now, if you asked Atiku the person who will never support him in Rivers State, for example, all his ten fingers will point at Nyesom Wike, the immediate past Governor of the State and now, Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

Wike, in same Party with Atiku, PDP, did not hide it that he was not going to support Atiku; that his full  support was for the eventual winner, then Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, now President Bola Tinubu.

For, those he trusted, those  who wer with him, it has now been revealed, have since pledged their loyalty for Tinubu.

This unsettling revelation came from his main man, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, a former Minister for Transportation. He was Atiku’s points man in Rivers State. And, in the heat of the Campaigns, in fact, on the eve of Atiku’s arrival in the State for his campaign, Sekibo was attacked, by  thugs and Security Agents allegedly loyal to Wike while he was at the venue of the upcoming Campaign to supervise the preparations. He and Wike, once close political allies, have aince, fallen out badly over his relationship with Atiku.

But in an unforced revelation he has just made, Dr Sekibo let it be known that he and  some others who  worked for Atiku, have since transferred their loyalty to Tinubu. According to him, their abandonment of  Atiku is the handiwork of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Fubara, he disclosed,  convinced them to shift loyalty to Tinubu instead of. Atiku.

Sekibo revealed this on Thursday when he spoke at the inauguration of Borokiri Fire Service facility rehabilitated by Governor Fubara.

He said far from the stories they tell Mr President in Abuja that those around Governor Fubara werw against the President, they are 100% with him.

His words: “Mr President, our own President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lend me your ears. We, the Rivers people have always supported the Government at the center. We have always worked with the Government at the centre

“This Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has convinced Rivers people that they must stand with their President, and we do stand with you. There might be persons telling you stories, especially, when they see people like me who were core Atiku men. They will say: ‘Don’t you see it is Atiku people that are with the Governor?’

“There are also Atiku people that are with them there in Abuja. But the Governor has convinced us that the place to be is with our President and Mr President, we stand with you. We stand with you because that is the right thing to do.

“The Elections delivered you as our President and so we stand with you. The Election delivered this Governor, our son. For the first time in 24 years, the Ijaw nation in more than eight Local Government Areas of Rivers State have the opportunity of having one of their own as the Governor of this State. We stand with him. We have no choice.

“Through his work in Rivers, the Governor has shown that the interest of the people and the unity of the country are his priority.”

The Governor, he said, has worked tirelessly so as to create no problems for the Federal Government, not even, he noted, when the funds due to the State were withheld. Fubara, Sekibo emphasized, kept all essential services working.

Fubara made this statement in the heat of the political crisis I’m the State which not a few people think, is aimed at either impeaching the Governor by Pro-Wike Legislators or declaring a state of emergency in the State.