2027 Elections: South-South APC Urges Fubara, Diri to Dump PDP and Join Renewed Hope Agenda

As political alignments for the 2027 general elections take shape, the South-South caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on Governors Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and Douye Diri of Bayelsa to defect from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and embrace the APC’s “Renewed Hope” agenda.

In a strategic meeting held in Benin, Edo State on Sunday, July 6, 2025, party stakeholders from the South-South region unanimously adopted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC’s sole presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.

They also pledged full support for APC governors across the zone as the party’s flagbearers in their respective states.

The high-level meeting was attended by several political heavyweights, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, and Minister of Aviation Festus Keyamo, who signed the official communiqué.

The communiqué reads in part:

“We welcome the courageous decision of stakeholders and supporters in Delta and Akwa Ibom States who have embraced the Renewed Hope Agenda by joining the APC.

We now call on the remaining two non-APC governors in the South-South Bayelsa’s Douye Diri and Rivers’ Siminalayi Fubara to also align with the progressive vision by joining the APC.”

The stakeholders commended President Tinubu for his commitment to regional development, particularly through the signing of the South-South Development Commission Act and ongoing infrastructural projects across the zone.

This push for defection comes amid ongoing political tension in Rivers State. Recently, FCT Minister and former Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, declined to reveal the details of a peace deal between himself and Governor Fubara, merely stating that “peace has returned” and that “whatever anybody says is not my business.”