Fubara Disagrees With APC Over First Year Performance

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has disagreed with the comments of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state that his administration performed woefully in its first year.

The APC had claimed that Fubara did not take charge of governance in Rivers State until February this year, despite being in office since May 2023, a pointer to the crisis rocking the state between the governor and his predecessor --- his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike.

At a press briefing in Port Harcourt, the Chairman of the Rivers APC Caretaker Committee,  Chief Tony Okocha, said Fubara’s statement was a confession that all the projects he inaugurated to his mark his first year in office were done during the immediate past administration of Wike.

Okocha, who scored Fubara low on performance, said the only achievement of the incumbent administration was thanksgiving for his victory at the Supreme Court across the 23 local government areas of the state which gulped huge public funds.

But in a swift reaction, the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, described the claim by the opposition party as unfortunate.

Johnson said, “It is quite unfortunate that Chief Tony Okocha is still living in the past."

The commissioner said Fubara had completed most of the projects flagged off by his predecessor, Wike, saying, “Some were awarded in the months that he (Wike) was leaving and zero kobo was paid.

“The one I am about is the construction of Rumeprikom internal road and drains phase 2, plot 1, which is the hometown of the former governor. He awarded that project on the 13th of March to be completed in four months.

“He (Wike) didn’t pay a kobo. We have paid 91 per cent of the contract value and we are at 95 per cent completion. The cost is N2.2bn.”

On the allegations of N150 million deployed for thanksgiving in the 23 LGAs of the state, Johnson said none of the thanksgiving was at the behest of the state government.

“The one we held in St Paul’s Anglican Church, Garrison in Port Harcourt was the only one done in commemoration of our one year in office. We did not have any hand in any of the thanksgiving held anywhere,” he said.