The APC screening committee cleared every Wike-aligned candidate in Rivers and rejected every candidate backed by Fubara. Fubara walked out. He said nothing.

The APC's Rivers State House of Assembly screening last week cleared all 29 sitting lawmakers aligned with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and rejected all 32 aspirants backed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Fubara reportedly arrived at the screening venue, stayed less than ten minutes, and left. Asked how it went, he said "no comment" and walked to his car.

This is the Wike-Fubara conflict at its clearest.

The peace deal that ended the emergency rule included an understanding. It was contested but widely reported. Fubara would not seek re-election in 2027 and would join the APC. He joined. The Assembly elections are now the test of whether he gets to contest on the platform he joined, or whether that platform will be used to eliminate him.

The screening result answers that question early. It's not the final word. The APC's national office has said no official results have been released, and the committee's actual decisions haven't been formally published. But the picture on the ground is consistent. Wike's candidates moved through the process smoothly. Fubara's candidates did not move through at all.

Wike's allies control both the APC and PDP structures in Rivers through what the minister calls a "rainbow coalition." If Fubara's candidates can't get onto the ballot for the state Assembly, the next governor of Rivers will run without a loyal legislature beneath them. They'll need their own deal with whoever controls that House. Which means whoever wins will need Wike.

That's the design. Fubara knows it. He just can't say so in a car park in Abuja.

Here's the thing about Rivers State politics that makes it different from anywhere else. The Wike-Fubara conflict is not a fight between two people with different ideas about governance. It is a fight over who controls the structures that produce political survival in the state. The local government chairmen. The House members. The party delegates who decide who gets the ticket. Wike installed the current local government chairmen during the state of emergency. Those chairmen are expected to deliver delegates. The screening result is one piece of a much larger set of advantages Wike has been building since before Fubara defected to the APC.

Fubara has incumbency, growing public sympathy, and a track record that resonates with ordinary Rivers residents. He does not have the party structure. For now, Wike has that. The question 2027 will answer is whether it's enough.

The APC's national office has said no official results have been released and that circulating lists are unauthorised. Nothing has formally changed. The committee's actual decisions will determine who stands. That verdict is coming.