The Rivers Professional Women League has lashed out at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike over his reaction against the Rivers women who staged a walkout when the wife of the Sole Administrator, Theresa Ibas attempted to address them in the capacity of the first lady of the state.
It would be recalled that during the scheduled empowerment of 500 women by the Renewed Hope Initiative of the wife of the president, Mrs. Remi Tinubu in Port Harcourt on Friday, Rivers women who came expecting to be addressed by the wife of the speaker of House of Representatives representing Mrs Tinubu, instead saw Mrs Ibas on the podium and staged a walkout apparently in solidarity with the suspended Governor Sim Fubara.
As the women were walking out of the venue, they were chorusing: “We want Fubara,” “we want Fubara ” and left the hall.
However, the FCT minister through his media aide reacted angrily to the action of the women, describing it as an affront on the president and his wife.
Reacting to Wike’s outburst, the Rivers Professional Women League on Saturday, deplored the statement credited to the FCT minister.
In a statement signed by Nimi Fiberesima, Jennifer Boms Worlugbom and Tambari Menete, President, Secretary and Director of Publicity, respectively, the women said the minister “wants Rivers women to be beaten and coerced, and at the same time not to cry.
“It is like killing one’s goat and showing him the stick with which you used to kill the goat.”
The women stated that they would have ignored the statement as usual, but for the fact that each time Wike wants to use every reaction of Rivers people against injustice, high handedness and inequities against them to blackmail Governor Fubara before President Bola Tinubu.
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“This unfortunate situation only calls for divine intervention. As it is, using the peaceful disposition of Rivers people to hunt them has become the article in trade in recent times and it will be unfair and counter productive to continue on this path of blackmail.
“Need we remind Nyesom Wike that the rain does not fall on the roof of one man alone. What affects the eyes also affects the nose
“It has become more surprising that Nyesom Wike has devoted more time to activities in Rivers State beyond his primary place of assignment in Abuja where he is superintending over as ninister of the Federal Capital Territory.
“If we may ask, is that how other ministers are operating in their home states?”
The group expressed shock at what they described as the constant unnecessary heating up of Rivers polity.
“It is trite to inform the public that Gov. Siminalayi Fubara is not by any means involved or directed any of the Rivers women to act on his behalf as to what transpired in Port Harcourt on Friday, May 2, 2025.
“The women are just organic supporters who do not want to be taken for a ride. Much as Governor Siminalayi Fubara is toeing the path of peace and embarking on reconciliation process, does not translate to enslavement and/or insulting the sensibility of Rivers people as being manipulated,” they maintained.
The group insisted that Rivers women did not walk out on the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu or disrespected her husband, President Bola Tinubu, adding that such a narrative is the imaginative spinning of Nyesom Wike to blackmail Rivers people as always.
According to the women, people fail to understand that political position is transient after which all the actors will also fizzle out, some on the good side and some others on the bad side.
“Particular note should be taken that a similar event in Delta saw nursing school students express their discontent in the presence of the first lady and no one shouted blue murder against the governor or linked the action to the governor even though the students were mobilised by the state.
“Why are things always different in Rivers State just because Wike is a minister?” the women wondered.
While restating the support of Rivers Women for the first lady, the women however, said the disconnect was that women were misinformed that the first lady, will be represented by the wife of the speaker of House of Representatives, Hajiya Fatima Abbas Tajudeen, on the strength of which they happily mobilised and excitedly prepared to receive her.
“Unfortunately, as they gathered in expectation, they were shocked to see Mrs. Theresa Ibas which in itself was improper”
“It is therefore unfounded and preposterous for Nyesom Wike to suddenly conclude as always to say the least that Rivers women embarrassed the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and by extension Mr. President,” the women group asserted.
