The re-election bid of the Governor of Rivers state, Sim Fubara suffered a setback on Sunday after he stormed out of the screening hall on Sunday in Abuja.
Fubara arrived at the Plateau Governors lodge at about 3:05 p.m for the screening ahead of the May 21 primary of the party.
The governor, however, stormed out of the screening room after about 20 minutes, with his body countenance changed.
Fubara, whose anger was written all over his face, refused to grant interviews to journalists who had laid siege and waited for his arrival.
Since the screening of aspirants commenced, after any engagement with any governor seeking re-election, or any governor eyeing senatorial ticket, the committee members would escort the aspirant out.
But it was a different story when Fubara was leaving, members didn’t escort him out. They also left about six minutes after Chinda left.
Sunday’s screening was presided over by the Deputy National Chairman, North, Ali Dalori.
TheHintsNews reports that Fubara had been having a running battle with his estranged political godfather and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
Checks revealed that Wike had all along planned to replace Fubara with the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, while one of Wike’s sons would take over from Chinda who currently represents Obio/Akpor federal constituency under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives.
The lawmaker, it was gathered, was the first to be screened on Saturday as an aspirant in the APC for the 2027 Rivers governorship election.
Chinda’s appearance before the APC panel confirmed the speculation that he had defected to the ruling party “quietly”, although he has yet to officially confirm any move.
It was gathered that Chinda was even the first aspirant to be screened ahead of the APC primary.
Speaking with journalists after the screening, APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru said anyone that appeared before the committee was screened because it was part of the process.
When asked if Fubara was screened, he noted, “I don’t know what you mean by screen, anybody that appears before the screening committee, of course, is necessary as part of the process.
“After appearing before the screening committee, the screen committee will issue its report. As of now, the screening committee, when it has completed seeing everybody is supposed to see, will now sit down and come out with a report. As of now, there’s no report of screening committee.”