A protégé of Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Kingsley Chinda, has been declared the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
The declaration was made on Thursday by Bitrus Kwamoti, the Chairman of the APC governorship primary election committee at the APC Secretariat in Port Harcourt, the state capital, after receiving results from collation officers across the 23 local government areas of the state.
Kwamoti said Chinda emerged as the sole aspirant in the exercise and polled a total of 268,497 votes.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that Governor Siminalayi Fubara on Wednesday withdrew from the primary election citing “immense pressures and difficult choices”.
Fubara, who had face fierce opposition from his estranged political godfather and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory, in a personally signed statement on Wednesday, said he “stepped aside from participating in the upcoming River’s state Gubernatorial election “not out of weakness, fear, or surrender, but out of conviction and sacrifice so that Rivers State may move forward in peace and unity”, stressing that he remained “committed to serving the good people of Rivers state till the end of my term”.
Wike had sworn that he would not be allowed a second term in office over some disagreements.
Announcing Chinda as the APC candidate, the committee chairman said, “I, Kwamoti Bitrus, chairman of the Governorship Primary Election Committee, hereby certify that I am the Returning Officer for the Rivers State Governorship Primary Election held on this 21st day of May, 2026.”
According to him, Chinda satisfied all requirements of the APC constitution and guidelines and was therefore returned as the party’s governorship candidate for Rivers State.
“The name of the aspirant, who is the sole aspirant, is Chinda Ogundu Kingsley. He scored the total number of votes, 268,497,” he said.
Apart from Fubara, Tonye Cole and Alabo George-Kelly had similarly withdrawn from the primaries on the eve of the election.