Okpebholo’s victory, Akwa Ibom first lady’s death, other top stories from the South-south

This is a review of major events in Nigeria’s south-south region last week.

APC’s Okpebholo wins Edo governorship election

The week began on Sunday with the All Progressives Congress (APC) winning the 2024 governorship election in Edo State.

Amidst allegations of results alterations, intimidation, and police bias, INEC declared Monday Okpebholo, the APC candidate, the governor-elect.

Mr Okpebholo polled 291 667 votes to defeat his major rival, PDP’s Ighodalo, who scored 247, 274, while the Labour Party candidate, Olumide Akpata, came third with 22,763 votes.

President Bola Tinubu, governors congratulated Mr Okpebholo for the victory, while the PDP and its candidate have rejected the result and vowed to challenge it in court.

Pro-Wike speaker makes U-turn, says they didn’t defect to APC

The pro-Wike speaker,

Martin Amaewhule, the speaker of a faction of the Rivers House of Assembly loyal to Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister, last week, said he and 26 others did not defect from the PDP to the APC.

The 27 pro-Wike lawmakers’ seats were declared vacant nine months ago following their defection to the APC. After their defection, they were filmed waving the APC flag and singing President Tinubu’s solidarity song “On your Mandate we shall stand.”

But addressing reporters in Abuja last week, Mr Amaewhule said he and his colleagues never defected. He claimed that The Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, wants to remove them from office through the “backdoor”.

Also, from Rivers State, we reported that Governor Fubara’s loyalists are contesting next month’s local government election in the state under the platform of the Action Peoples Party (APP).

Mr Fubara’s loyalists resorted to the APP after the PDP, the party in which Mr Fubara was elected governor, refused to participate in the election following the political rift between the governor and his predecessor, Mr Wike.

Members of the PDP executives across all levels in Rivers State are loyal to Mr Wike.

To consolidate their grip on the PDP structure in Rivers, Mr Wike’s loyalists last week obtained a court order barring PDP national leadership from dissolving the executive committees of the party in the state.

Meanwhile, Mr Fubara attacked his predecessor within the week, saying Mr Wike destroyed the civil service in the state while serving as governor. Mr Fubara told the visiting Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, that he inherited a “near-death” civil service where workers were last promoted 11 years ago.

Away from politics, four school proprietors have been detained in Port Harcourt for alleged involvement in book piracy worth N2.5 million.

Addul Babatunde, the director of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Port Harcourt Directorate, disclosed this to reporters on Friday.

Mr Babatunde said the schools were raided to curtail the illicit activities of proprietors, which he said had affected the book trade.

Gov Eno loses wife

Akwa Ibom residents woke up on Friday to the shocking news of the death of Patience, the wife of the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno.

According to a statement from the State Commissioner of Information, Ini Ememobong, the Akwa Ibom first lady died on Thursday at a hospital following an illness. He did not, however, disclose the illness.

Nigerians, including President Tinubu, state governors, serving and former federal lawmakers, have sent condolences to the governor.

The PDP, the state’s ruling party, temporarily suspended its political campaigns for next month’s local government election in honour of the departed first lady.

Also, within the week, we reported that Governor Eno set up a committee to monitor the sale of petrol after the price climbed to N2,500 a litre. The price hike followed the withdrawal of services by members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria over an alleged confiscation of trucks by operatives of a Joint Task Force on security.

The State Government intervened in the dispute after the NLC directed workers in the state to withdraw services.

Navy deploys warships to tackle oil theft

Within the week, we brought a report that the Nigerian Navy has deployed 10 warships to boost its efforts in tackling oil theft and other maritime crimes in the country’s territorial waters.

Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command, Saheed Akinwande, who disclosed this on Thursday in Onne, Rivers State, said the federal government has been battling oil theft, sea robbery, sea piracy and illegal foreign fishing.

Similarly, the Defence Headquarters on Thursday said troops of Operation Delta Safe destroyed 897 illegal refining sites across the Niger Delta region in the third quarter of the year.

Edward Buba, the director of defence media operations disclosed this in a press briefing in Abuja, the nation’s capital.