Fubara Joins APC, Says Tinubu Saved His Governorship: “We Got No Protection in PDP”

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has formally defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), declaring that he received no protection from his former party during the political crisis that threatened his position. The governor announced his decision on Tuesday during a stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

Addressing political leaders and supporters, Fubara said his defection was both a strategic and symbolic move, insisting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was instrumental in preventing his removal from office. According to him, joining the APC is his way of expressing gratitude to the president.

“What you all have been waiting for, what you have been asking me—the signal has finally arrived,” Fubara told the gathering. “We have the full support; we have the positive nod to leave where we are because we didn’t get any protection to go to where we are going.”

He added that the presidency’s intervention at the height of the Rivers political crisis made it possible for him to remain in office. “Without Mr. President, there wouldn’t be any His Excellency Siminalayi Fubara; it would have been former governor,” he said. “Our only ‘thank you’ to Mr. President is to support him, and we cannot support the President in isolation… we cannot support the President if we don’t fully identify with him.”

The governor emphasized that those who stood by him throughout the power tussle would also follow him into the APC. “Everyone here who has followed me, who has suffered with me—our decision today, this evening—is that we are moving to the APC,” he declared.

Fubara’s defection comes on the heels of a similar mass exodus from the PDP by Rivers State lawmakers. On December 5, Speaker Martin Amaewhule and 17 other members of the House of Assembly defected to the APC, citing deepening internal crises within the PDP. Their departure intensified speculation about the governor’s political future and increased pressure on him to align with the ruling party.

The Rivers political landscape has been fraught with tension in recent months, marked by a power struggle involving the governor, legislators, and political heavyweights in the state. Fubara’s shift to the APC signals a major realignment that could reshape political alliances ahead of the 2027 elections.

With the governor and a significant portion of the state’s political structure now migrating to the APC, Rivers appears poised for a major political recalibration—one that could further strengthen the ruling party’s influence in the South-South region.