The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has said the political tension between Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), and Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers State, falls outside the party’s jurisdiction.

Yilwatda stated this on Tuesday during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, noting that the APC leadership has no mandate to intervene in the dispute because the two actors belong to different political parties.

“When it comes to the issue between Wike and Fubara, it is not within my purview as national chairman of the APC. Wike is in the PDP, while Fubara is in the APC,” he said.

He explained that the impeachment controversy in Rivers State is strictly an internal matter involving APC members of the state house of assembly and not Wike. According to Yilwatda, the party has established mechanisms for resolving such disputes.

“The issue of impeachment is not about Wike. It concerns APC members in the house of assembly. That is something I can speak on. It is an internal issue, and we have in-house mechanisms to resolve it,” he said.

The APC chairman stressed that internal disagreements should be handled with discretion and maturity, rather than being debated in the public space. “We don’t conduct these discussions in public. Issues are better resolved through internal processes that require maturity,” he added.

When asked whether Wike constitutes a problem for the ruling party, Yilwatda dismissed the suggestion outright, saying, “Never, never.”

In December 2025, Wike openly opposed Fubara’s re-election bid, accusing the governor of reneging on an agreement they both signed before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu lifted the emergency rule imposed in Rivers State. Lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly aligned with Wike also accused Fubara of spending state funds without legislative approval.

The lawmakers subsequently initiated impeachment proceedings against Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, over allegations of “gross misconduct.”

However, on January 23, a Rivers State High Court adjourned the matter indefinitely, ruling that the Court of Appeal must first determine pending appeals filed by the speaker and other lawmakers. The ruling effectively stalled the impeachment process.