Former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has asserted that his successor, Governor Sim Fubara, is not an Ijaw man. Wike made the statement while addressing a gathering of Kalabari people at a reception organized in his honor on Saturday.
The former governor recently claimed that an Ijaw candidate could not have won the governorship in Rivers State without his support, referring to Fubara. He further stated that the Ijaw ethnic group does not form a majority in any Niger Delta state except Bayelsa.
Wike’s remarks come amid a deepening political rift between him and Fubara. In the same address, he questioned the Ijaw identity of people from the Opobo clan, where the governor hails from.
“Let nobody deceive you that the governor is Ijaw; he is not. All of you are Ijaw; are you benefiting?” Wike told the Kalabari gathering. “Politics is interest. We must come up to say people must not behave and treat people, use and dump them, and then you say it’s politics. That politics has to stop,” he said.
The comments add to the ongoing tension in Rivers State as political factions continue to clash over leadership and influence.
