{"id":82336,"date":"2026-01-31T15:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=82336"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:45:47","slug":"wike-rivers-govt-clash-over-stadium-for-tinubu-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/31\/wike-rivers-govt-clash-over-stadium-for-tinubu-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"Wike, Rivers Govt Clash Over Stadium for Tinubu Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has warned Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, of \u201cdire consequences\u201d if the state government again denies the Renewed Hope Agenda access to the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Port Harcourt, for its rallies.<\/p>\n<p>Wike alleged that organisers of the Renewed Hope Agenda were denied approval to use the stadium for the inauguration of coordinators on Friday, warning that his supporters would forcefully gain access if such refusal recurs.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the inauguration of Renewed Hope Agenda coordinators at the Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Port Harcourt, Wike insisted that no group should be denied access to state-owned facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe applied to the state government for the Yakubu Gowon Stadium and were refused. Next time, if approval is denied, we will break in by force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman of the Renewed Hope Agenda Family in Rivers State, Desmond Akawor, and the Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria in the state, Allwell Ihunda, also claimed their request to use the stadium was rejected by the Fubara-led administration.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Rivers State Government denied the allegation, stating that the stadium is currently under reconstruction and unsafe for public use. In a statement, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Honour Siraawoo, described the claims as misleading.<\/p>\n<p>He said inspections revealed serious safety concerns at the facility, adding that the contractor handling the project would not permit public use during renovation. The Commissioner for Sports and Attorney-General, Christopher Green, also said his ministry received no formal request for the stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the dispute, the coordinators were inaugurated at the Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic. Wike said Rivers State was the first to inaugurate Renewed Hope Agenda coordinators nationwide and urged residents to support President Bola Tinubu\u2019s re-election bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has warned Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, of \u201cdire consequences\u201d if the state government again denies the Renewed Hope Agenda access to the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Port Harcourt, for its rallies. Wike alleged that organisers of the Renewed Hope Agenda were denied [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":82337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1755,172,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2027-general-elections","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82338,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82336\/revisions\/82338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}