Barely one week after visiting the Governor of Rivers, Sim Fubara, the governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 guber election, Beatrice Itubo, has announced the withdrawal of the petition filed by LP against Fubara from court.
Recall that LP had challenged Fubara’s victory in the election with the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos dismissing its petition and upholding Fubara’s win.
But in a Saturday chat with Channels Television, Itubo said: “Because of the current happenings in River State, we feel that the interests of the state are far more paramount than every one of our expectations or feelings.
“So, we are looking at it from the angle of the people. People have said, ‘Let us allow the government to move on, let there be good governance’ and there cannot be good governance without peace.
“And so, we looked at the whole scenario and we said ‘Enough is enough. Let us go back and ask our lawyers to withdraw the suit so that we can join hands with the present government to see how we can move the state forward’.
“We are also calling on well-meaning Rivers indigenes – even those who live and work in the state, and those who do business here; everybody – to come out and support the government of Sir Sim Fubara so that we can move Rivers State to the next level because no society can develop without peace,” she said, but affirming she is still in Labour Party.
“And we need the dividends of democracy here in Rivers State. And so we are saying, yeah, we cannot continue to fight. The Bible says there’s a time to fight and a time to stop fighting. And I think this is the time to stop fighting.”
But PDP insiders and persons familiar with the tussle between Fubara and Nyesom Wike, his godfather, told Political Economist NG that the truce between LP and the camp of Fubara was as a result of moves made by Fubara loyalists to firm up the governor’s stronghold in the state.
“We are happy with this development. We want to henceforth know the real enemies of the state pretending to be leaders at different levels. Fubara won the election convincingly. He has not done anything to warrant the current fight orchestrated by Wike. All Rivers people of all parties should support Fubara who has shown to be governor of all Rivers people. We thank Labour Party for this gesture. We urge others to join the winning team of Fubara,” a PDP supporter of Fubara told Political Economist NG.
