Fubara and Wike set a high vote target for Tinubu and Chinda as Rivers APC and Rainbow Coalition inaugurate campaign council

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nyesom Wike have set a target of delivering massive votes for President Bola Tinubu, Kingsley Chinda and other candidates of the Rainbow Coalition in Rivers. They spoke on Thursday in Port Harcourt at the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council in the state, according to ThisDay and BusinessDay.

Wike coordinates the campaign council in Rivers. Fubara told the gathering that “the surest path to victory is for members of the Presidential Campaign Council drawn from the APC and the Rainbow Coalition to embrace the spirit of teamwork”. He described the mobilisation as a repeat of the 2022 and 2023 effort, in which a large council worked together to deliver victory for him and for Tinubu, and said the present council is “bigger, wider and better coordinated”.

He pointed to its makeup as an advantage. Some people who were in the opposition camp in the earlier elections are now part of the team, he said, which makes the task easier if everyone works as one. He expressed optimism that the state would record more votes than in 2023, and said Rivers had “gone past the stage of division”.

Fubara praised Wike and other leaders for putting the council together. He asked members whose names were left off the first list not to be discouraged, because more subcommittees will be formed. He also warned against double loyalty and insisted that members show sincerity and commitment to the coalition.

Wike, whom BusinessDay described as national leader of the PDP/Rainbow Coalition, told members they were each chosen for their capacity to take part in the group's activities and deliver results. He charged them to win votes for the coalition's candidates in the presidential, governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections, and said local government campaign councils would be inaugurated soon to strengthen grassroots mobilisation.

The Rainbow Coalition is the alliance led by Wike that has backed Tinubu's re-election while its candidates run for other offices, as PDP national secretary Sam Anyanwu also said in Ibadan this week. The Rivers event shows the alliance and the APC campaigning under one banner.

The vote targets are the speakers' own. The reports do not give a number of votes or a size for the council.