Fubara wanted to resign before rift with Wike festered - Niger Delta leader

Sara-Igbe, who is also the National Coordinator, South-South Leadership Forum, said the Governor had to shelve the idea after the intervention of some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Nyesom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister and immediate former Governor of Rivers State, installed Fubara as his successor in the oil-rich state. However, the relationship between the duo has gone south following disagreements over several issues.

The Minister accused the Governor of pulling down the political structure that helped him to attain power, but Fubara hinted that his predecessor had become overbearing and barely allowed him the free hands to run the state affairs.

The fight between the duo has plunged the state into a nasty political crisis, resulting in massive resignations of cabinet members and party cross-carpeting by the state House of Assembly members loyal to the minister.

Speaking on the Rivers situation in an interview on Channels Television, Sara-Igbe, a former spokesperson for the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), said the Governor had wanted to throw in the towel in the early days of the political feud.

According to the Niger Delta leader, Fubara mulled quitting because of the way forces above him prevented him from asserting his independence, coupled with the fact that he didn’t have enough control over the state’s funds and had difficulty running his government.

He predicted that the mass exodus of commissioners from Fubara's cabinet would continue because Wike's loyalists dominated the cabinet.

He also alleged that the Minister was still calling the shots in the Rivers Government House and determining how the governor was managing the state affairs despite no longer being the governor.

“What is the problem? Wike has come to tell the world that he was fighting Sim because Sim wanted to take his structure. What is the structure six months after elections; we are not close to elections, so what has structure got to do?

“Let me tell you about the structure; before Wike left the government, the state was making over N10bn internally generated revenue (monthly). When he left, the IGR came down to N6bn. And the governor, a former Accountant General of the state, asked questions and in the process he engaged somebody to look at the books, and the commissioner of finance reported to Wike and the former governor got angry. That is the structure.

“Secondly, the money coming from the federation account, Wike tied the money to one project or the other. So, when the money comes, it goes to the banks and they collect theirs from it and pay the contractors.

"Of course, we didn’t even know the cost of the contracts, so when this governor felt, ‘how will I run a government when I don’t have the resources’, the minister became hostile to the governor and the governor said ‘okay, let me resign if that is the case’. The PDP elders prevailed on him not to resign, thinking it would be messy,” Sara-Igbe said.

Highlighting the influence and power available to Nigerian governors, the Niger Delta leader said it would be difficult to make a governor subservient in Nigeria.

Sara-Igbe stated that the former governor was in the know regarding the defection of the 27 PDP assembly lawmakers to the All Progressives Congress (APC), noting that “he (Wike) is a lawyer, he ought to know that such a move would cost the Assembly members their seats”.