Rivers Gov, Fubara defects to APC, says Tinubu saved his political life..PDP warns of "One Party State" drift

By Johnson Arua

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, on Tuesday formally dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC), ending months of speculation and deepening the political realignments in the oil-rich state.

Fubara announced his defection during a stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House, Port Harcourt, barely 24 hours after holding a closed-door meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The gathering was attended by key loyalists from both the PDP and APC, an indication of a coordinated and long-planned political shift.

Addressing the stakeholders, Fubara disclosed that his visit to President Tinubu was to inform him of his decision to move, along with his supporters, to the APC in order to fully support the President’s second-term bid.

According to him, the PDP failed to protect him during the bruising political crisis in Rivers State, while President Tinubu’s intervention was what preserved his tenure.

“I know you have been expecting to hear from me,” Fubara began. “I went to see Mr President yesterday, not just for a personal visit, but for a state interest consultation.”

The governor said he wanted to avoid what he called “past mistakes,” hence his decision to brief the President directly on the situation in the state.

“But the most interesting part of the meeting is that what you have been waiting for has finally arrived,” he declared. “We have full support to leave where we are because we didn’t get any protection.”

He added that if not for Tinubu’s timely intervention in the Rivers political turmoil, he would have lost his seat.

“The truth is, if he (Tinubu) had not intervened, there wouldn’t have been any Siminialayi Fubara, His Excellency. It would have been former Excellency,” the governor said.

Fubara insisted that his political base remains intact and ready to move with him. “We have the people. We have supporters. We are saying thank you to Mr President, and to support him. We cannot support Mr President fully if we don’t identify with him.”

He concluded with a final, emphatic declaration: “Everyone who has followed me, our decision today is that we are moving to APC.”

Fubara defection is self inflicted and dangerous for democracy  -  PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party swiftly responded, warning that Fubara’s defection poses a grave threat to Nigeria’s democratic balance and accelerates the country’s slide toward a “one-party state.”

In a strongly worded statement signed by National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the PDP described the governor’s departure as “unfortunate, pitiful, and entirely self-inflicted.”

“This news, as pitiful as it is, is an exemplar of the old legal maxim volenti non fit injuria - ‘to one who is willing, no harm can be done’,” Ememobong said.

The party insisted that the governor alone is responsible for the political decisions that led to his defection, arguing that no one should blame the PDP or its stakeholders.

“Everyone who has followed the developments that culminated in this uneventful defection will recall that the Governor willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination,” the statement read.

The PDP said Fubara should not forget the solidarity he enjoyed from the party, civil society groups, and Nigerians who defended him during the crisis.

“Whilst a person at a crossroad of threats of existential proportion may suffer from temporary amnesia caused by trauma, the Governor should have nothing less than praise for our party, civil society organisations, and all Nigerians who stood up in his defence until he capitulated,” the party stated.

In a sharp rebuke, the PDP cautioned Fubara not to embrace those it believes forced him into his current political choices.

“It is our prayer that the Governor should not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim falls in love with his captor,” Ememobong added.

Despite saying it “pities” the governor, the PDP said it wishes him well but stressed that the broader implications of the Rivers crisis expose Nigeria’s fragile democracy.

According to the statement, the events in Rivers State demonstrate how individuals have become more powerful than institutions, using federal might to crush political opponents.

“The Rivers situation is a testament to the dysfunctional nature of our democracy, where individuals are bigger and stronger than institutions and can use the apparatus of the Federal Government to suffocate opponents and bring them to their knees,” it said.

Reiterating a long-standing concern, the PDP accused the APC of systematically constricting the political space as part of a deliberate push toward one-party dominance.

“With the ruling party’s unrelenting disposition toward attaining a one-party state, and the constriction of the political space, democracy is under severe attack in Nigeria,” the statement warned.

The PDP called on Nigerians, democratic institutions, and the international community to remain vigilant as the country faces what it described as a “dangerous turning point” in its political development.