Fubara pledges 3m Rivers votes as Tinubu campaigns in Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara pledged on Saturday to deliver at least three million votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 16 January 2027 election.

At a campaign rally at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt, Tinubu thanked Fubara for accepting his intervention in the state’s long political crisis, Channels Television reported. “Fubara, you will not regret what you have done as long as all of us are alive,” the president said.

The rally put Fubara and his predecessor, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, whose dispute dominated Rivers politics, on the same side of Tinubu’s re-election campaign. Fubara said Rivers was run by a “Rainbow Coalition” of APC and PDP members under Wike’s leadership.

“As you have stood for us, we will stand for you,” Fubara told the president. He thanked Tinubu for appointing more than 40 people from Rivers to federal posts; Wike put the number at 47.

Tinubu defended his economic reforms. He said 27 of the 36 states could not pay salaries when he took office, and that his government was clearing inherited salary and pension arrears. He urged young people to collect their voter cards.

He also attacked Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, asking how he built a private university while serving as vice-president. “A man without moral integrity, latitude, and ethics has no business holding public office,” Tinubu said.

In a statement issued by his director of strategic communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said he laid the foundation of ABTI Academy, which grew into the American University of Nigeria in Yola, in 1993, six years before he became vice-president. “My investment in education predates my time in public service,” he said.

The Port Harcourt rally came a day after Tinubu approved the Ibom Deep Seaport at a rally in Uyo. Tinubu also presented his manifesto for the 2027 election in Port Harcourt.

Sources: Channels Television; Vanguard; Punch; Daily Trust