- Says Fubara Sponsored The walkout To Embrass Tinubu’s wife
By Abiola Olawale
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has strongly criticized a group of Rivers State women who staged a dramatic walkout during an empowerment program organized by Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
The New Diplomat reports that the incident, which occurred on Friday, May 2, 2025, at the EUI Event Centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers State saw women believed to be loyal to suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara rejecting the presence of Theresa Ibas, wife of the state’s Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (Retd.).
The event was organised to launch the Renewed Hope Initiative, a pet project of Senator Tinubu, aimed to empower 500 women in Rivers State with items like freezers, gas cookers, and generators.
However, tensions flared when Theresa Ibas was introduced to speak on behalf of the First Lady.
As she began to address the audience, the women began chanting, “We want Fubara back” before walking out of the venue.
This is the latest development amidst the ongoing political unrest in Rivers State following President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of Fubara and the state’s House of Assembly on March 18, 2025, with Ibas appointed as interim administrator.
Reacting in a statement issued on Saturday, May 3, 2025, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, Wike described the walkout as “disturbing and embarrassing” to the people of Rivers State.
He condemned the protesters, accusing Fubara’s loyalists of disrespecting the First Lady and, by extension, Tinubu.
He said: “Insult on anyone representing the First Lady of Nigeria in an event is a direct insult on the office of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and as a leader in Rivers State, I apologise.”
Wike also counselled the suspended governor to demonstrate honesty by being bold enough to tell President Tinubu what exactly he wanted, rather than saying something today and doing another thing tomorrow.
The statement added: “It is not enough to be visiting people to plead for peace. Those who genuinely want peace work and act for it.
“These are the same people pleading for peace, but at the same time doing things that are contrary to what they are pleading for.
“How can you say you want peace and at the same time, you are sponsoring people to insult everyone, including the president and his wife?“All those shenanigans won’t bring peace, and I am sure they know that because they are not sincere with their up-and-down pleadings for peace.
“As for me and those who subscribe to my leadership, we condemn in totality yesterday’s show of shame, and we apologise to our First Lady for the embarrassing conduct of those few women who do not represent the characters and ideals of the people of Rivers State.”
