By our Reporter
The All Progressives Congress has declared results of the election primaries conducted in the 12 federal constituencies in Rivers State with Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule leading the pack.
The Returning Officer for the State APC House of Representatives Primary Election Committee and Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of Council, Federal University of Transportation, Daura, Katsina State, Wahab Owokoniran, declared the results after the collation officers for the various constituencies submitted the same to his committee at the APC Secretariat in Port Harcourt on Saturday night.
Present at the state APC secretariat where the results were declared were the State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Dr Johnson Sinikiem and other members of the commission.
The Owokoniran-led committee went on recess twice after receiving results of the primaries from the first five federal constituencies in the state, namely: Port Harcourt, Eleme/Tai/Oyigbo, Akuku/Toru/Asari-Toru, Khana/Gokana and Degema-Bonny respectively.
In some of the constituencies, the Returning Officer said two aspirants contested while in other cases there were sole aspirants including that of Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency 1 where Amaewhule emerged as a candidate to contest the general election in 2027.
Owokoniran stated while declaring one of the results, “In this case, we only have one aspirant, Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule. He scored 17, 968 votes.
“Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule having certified the requirement of the APC constitution and guidelines and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner of the primary election and is returned elected as the party House of Representatives candidate for Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, this day 16th of May, 2026.”
Similarly, Port Harcourt Federal Constituency also had a sole aspirant, Igwe Precious who polled 5, 885 votes and was declared winner of the primary election and candidate for next year’s election.
For Khana/Gokana federal constituency, a serving House member, Dumnamene Dekor, scored 17, 073 votes to defeat his rival, Israel Ngbuelo who scored 1,220 votes and was declared winner.
Cyril Hart scored 7,203 votes while his opponent, Philemon Tombodiea scored 1,020, as the former emerged as the party’s candidate for the main election in 2027 for Degema-Bonny federal constituency.
In Eleme/Tai/Oyigbo federal constituency, Felix Nweke, the sole aspirant, scored 18, 605 votes and was declared winner, while for Akuku-Toru/Asari-Toru federal constituency, Isobo Solomon scored 11,303 to defeat Luke Enerine, who polled 954 votes.
For the other results, Rt. Hon. Chukwuemele Obuzor who is the sole aspirant for the Ahoada West-Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni federal constituency scored 15, 626 to emerge as the APC candidate.
Also the Andoni-Opobo-Ndoni federal constituency, another sole aspirant, Fredrick Apiafi scored 8, 550 votes to win the primary election, while for Etche-Omuma federal constituency, Chibuzor Nwamaka scored 10, 414 votes, while Queen Obasi, polled 2,123.
In Ikwerre-Emuoha federal constituency, Joy Nyebuchi scored 13, 704 votes to win the party primary election against her opponent, Lawrence Ogbor, who polled 2030 votes.
On the other hand, for Port Harcourt Constituency 2 federal constituency, where there was only one aspirant, Blessing Amadi who scored 5, 674 votes and was returned elected as candidate.
For the other breakdown of results, Linda Steward scored 12, 247 votes to win the party primary poll for Okrika/Ogu-Bolo, while her rival, Tekena Ikaki garnered 388 votes.
For Abua-Odual/Ahoada East federal constituency, the sole aspirant, Hon. Solomon Bob scored 16079 votes and was declared winner of the APC primary election.
Speaking afterwards, Owokoniran said, “This is the final declaration. We have declared 13 out of 13 federal constituency results. We want to let the whole world know that the election was conducted in a very peaceful atmosphere.”
Owokoniran expressed surprise that the state is peaceful contrary to widespread beliefs that it is a crisis-ridden place.
Continuing on the primaries, he said there was neither ‘rancour, not in-fighting or any problem whatsoever contrary to the impression out there that Rivers State is very violent and there will always be problems; saying, “Surprisingly myself I was disappointed there was no form of violence. So, congratulations to the Rivers people, especially members of APC.”
Owokoniran lauded members of the party for conducting themselves peacefully well and expressed the optimism that they will carry such disposition into the general election, expressing the optimism that the party will win the Presidential election and the governorship and all other polls in Rivers state come 2027.
The State APC Publicity Secretary, Chibike Ikenga, while answering questions from newsmen expressed happiness that the poll across the various constituencies were peaceful and advised the winners to be humble as the main election is ahead.
“For those who didn’t make it doesn’t mean they can’t make it tomorrow. It’s like that. Our party as well has a mechanism that we deploy to unite the party and talk to people whose nerves have been frayed, to calm the nerves and ensure that we rally round the candidates to defeat the opposition party in the general elections,” Ikenga stated.
For those who won, the party spokesman said, “You must be humble in victory. That you have won today doesn’t mean you have won the general election. So we want them to be humble and see how they can bring everybody together to ensure that our party wins at all levels.”
Our correspondent reports that the primary election was generally peaceful, adding that all those who emerged are loyalists of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, some of whom are members of the ‘Rainbow Coalition’, or ‘Joint Coalition ‘a political strategy adopted by Wike to bring the APC and PDP together in the state to support the second term bid of President Bola Tinubu.
