According to Vanguard, the political crisis in Rivers State has taken a new turn as the Abuja Appeal Court sided with Martins Amaewhule and his gang of 26 Assembly members. Their camp was relieved by this ruling. Those who backed current FCT Minister and former governor Nyesom Wike celebrated the court's judgement with great excitement.
Amaewhule and his colleagues' defection lawsuit was dismissed by the judge as lacking jurisdiction by the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt. Some of Governor Siminalayi Fubara's backers have considered leaving the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in response to the continuing turmoil. They were under the impression that the governor was not having the backing of the PDP national and state leadership.
The acting National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagum, was asked to resign in April by sixty PDP MPs in the House of Representatives. Damagum was alleged to have taken a stance in support of Wike and belonged to the same political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which nominated Wike to the position of FCT minister. Imo State PDP member Ikenga Ugochinyere spearheaded this demand. Elder statesman and PANDEF leader Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe advocated patience in response to the proposal of Fubara's defection.
According to Sara-Igbe, who was a security consultant to the administration of Rivers State in the past, Fubara is free to quit his party if he is unhappy there. This is starting to make more sense to me. That, however, is premature. The governor is free to depart from his party if he feels uneasy about it. The current PDP leadership is clearly leaning in a different direction. I already mentioned that it is too early. "We should just wait and see what happens; maybe in 2027," he suggested.