Relief for Fubara as Labour Party withdraws petition against his election

Fubara is currently locked in a supremacy battle with his political benefactor and predecessor, Wike, over who controls the state’s political machinery.

Long before his struggle with the Minister commenced, the Governor had been dealing with a post-election litigation that cast a shadow of doubt over his mandate at the poll.

The Labour Party and its Rivers governorship candidate, Beatrice Itubo, had challenged the victory of Fubara, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, in the March 18 election at the Appeal Court.

But the appellate court, sitting in Lagos, dismissed the petition against the Governor and affirmed his victory in the poll.

Weeks after the development, Itubo said her party had decided not to file a further appeal against Fubara.

Speaking during a chat with Channels Television in her Ogbakiri country home of Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State on Saturday, December 16, 2023, the Labour Party chieftain said the interests of the state are far more paramount than anything else at this period.

“Because of the current happenings in River State, we feel that the interests of the state are far more paramount than every one of our expectations or feelings.

“So, we are looking at it from the angle of the people. People have said, ‘Let us allow the government to move on, let there be good governance’ and there cannot be good governance without peace.

“And so we looked at the whole scenario and we said ‘Enough is enough. Let us go back and ask our lawyers to withdraw the suit so that we can join hands with the present government to see how we can move the state forward,’” Itubo said.

Itubo said Rivers residents need to rally behind Fubara’s government to bring development to the state.

“And not just us. We are also calling on well-meaning Rivers indigenes – even those who live and work in the state, and those who do business here; everybody – to come out and support the government of Sir Sim Fubara so that we can move Rivers State to the next level because no society can develop without peace,” she said, but affirming she is still in Labour Party.

“And we need the dividends of democracy here in Rivers State. And so we are saying, yeah, we cannot continue to fight. The Bible says there’s a time to fight and a time to stop fighting. And I think this is the time to stop fighting,” she added.

If recent developments are anything to go by, Itubo and Fubara may have formed a synergy amid the ongoing political upheaval in the oil-rich state. The former has backpedalled from her earlier vow to pursue the election petition to the highest level over claims that the process was fraught with fraudulent activities.

The Labour Party candidate had earlier visited Fubara at the Government House in Port Harcourt, where she pledged her support for the governor in the wake of the widening political cracks between him and Wike.