The All Progressives Congress, APC, Screening Committee has disqualified former factional Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo, and 64 other aspirants are contesting the party’s state assembly primaries ahead of the 2027 elections.
The committee, chaired by Rt. Hon. Muraina Ajibola, released its report on Monday after screening 98 aspirants at the APC secretariat in Port Harcourt over the weekend. According to the report, 33 aspirants were cleared to contest, while 65 failed to meet the party’s requirements.
Most of those disqualified are core loyalists of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. They include former Obio/Akpor Local Government Chairman Chijioke Kemzunum Ihunwo, Sokari Goodboy Sokari, Timothy Orubibanugha, and other serving and former political appointees aligned to the governor. The report said the affected aspirants failed on grounds ranging from incomplete documentation, missing voter cards, irregular membership details, and submission of incomplete affidavits.
The screening was not without drama. The committee noted that Oko Jumbo caused a brief confrontation at the venue after insisting on entering with a retinue of security aides, leading to a disagreement with police officers on duty. In a separate incident, aspirant Tonye Garrick Tom-George was handed over to the police for allegedly attempting to bribe committee members with an envelope containing cash and his passport photograph.
On the other side, the 33 cleared aspirants are largely aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. The list includes serving lawmakers such as Deputy Speaker Maol Dumle, House Leader Major M. Jack, and House Spokesman Enemi Alabo George, along with other incumbents who have been linked to the Wike camp. The committee said their credentials were verified and found satisfactory.
The outcome has deepened the factional divide within the Rivers APC, where the struggle for control between Wike and Fubara camps has been playing out since the 2023 elections. Political observers say the disqualification of Fubara’s loyalists gives Wike’s camp a significant advantage ahead of the primaries.
Fubara’s camp has described the process as predetermined, while Wike on Monday distanced himself from the exercise, saying as a non-APC member, he had no role in the screening. “I am not a member of the APC, so I don’t know what is happening in their screening,” he told journalists in Abuja.
The APC Rivers chapter said appeals against the screening outcome would be received at the party secretariat on May 12. The party’s leadership has warned that no unofficial list should be circulated until the National Working Committee ratifies the report.
With 33 aspirants cleared and 65 out, the stage is set for a tense primary battle that could reshape the balance of power in Rivers State’s legislative politics ahead of 2027.