Sowore Lambasts Ex-Minister Amaechi Over Flooded NBA Conference Venue In Port-Harcourt As Lawyers Pay N5000 For ‘Backing’ To Esc∆pe Flood
Sowore Lambasts Ex-Minister Amaechi Over Flooded NBA Conference Venue In Port-Harcourt As Lawyers Pay N5000 For ‘Backing’ To Escape Flood
Sowore was reacting to a video showing severe flooding at the exit point of the NBA conference venue, with lawyers reportedly forced to wade through floodwaters or pay local residents to carry them to safety.
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) for the 2027 general elections, Omoyele Sowore, has mocked former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, after a video showing lawyers and local residents struggling through floodwaters at the venue of the 2026 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, surfaced online.
Sowore, in a post on X on Friday night, recalled Amaechi’s earlier remarks at the NBA conference in Port Harcourt, where the former governor boasted about the infrastructure projects executed by his administration.
“When @ChibuikeAmaechi stood at the @NigBarAssoc Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt boasting, ‘Take @sowore around Rivers State, I built this road, I built that road, I built this school, I built that school,’ he may have forgotten to look around him,” Sowore said.
“This was the venue of the very NBA conference where he made those boasts. Look around Port Harcourt. Look at the roads.
“Look at the infrastructure. Look at the condition of a state they governed and claimed to have transformed. This is the Rivers State they built.”
When @ChibuikeAmaechi stood at the @NigBarAssoc Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt boasting, “Take @sowore around Rivers State, I built this road, I built that road, I built this school, I built that school,” he may have forgotten to look around him.
Sowore was reacting to a video showing severe flooding at the exit point of the NBA conference venue, with lawyers reportedly forced to wade through floodwaters or pay local residents to carry them to safety.
In the video, a commentator identified the location as the exit point of the NBA conference in Rivers State and described the situation as lawyers struggled to navigate the flooded area.
“This is the exit point for the NBA conference, Rivers State 2026,” the speaker said. “You can see what we have gotten into today. You can see the lawyers.
“Some of them are getting backed. Yes. And if this backing is not free or it is for a fee, people selling slippers are making business.”
The speaker also noted that lawyers attending the conference had to roll up their clothes and find alternative ways to move through the flooded area.
“Yes, you can see lawyers around. Everybody has to fold up. Yes. No brotherhood in jungle,” he said.
He further pointed out that residents were making money by offering to carry lawyers through the floodwaters and selling slippers and umbrellas.
“People selling slippers and umbrellas, making business,” he said. “We are all officers in the Temple of Justice. You can see me. You can see where I am standing.”
As more lawyers were seen being carried through the flood, the speaker asked how much the service cost.
“This backing is not free. So how much per backing?” he asked. “N3,000,” another person responded.
He continued, “You can see it. One backing is N3,000. “That is the lawyers now. Being backed at N3,000 from the gate to the exit point.”
The cost reportedly rose to N5,000 for some of the lawyers depending on the distance.
“One backing is 5,000. Or if you don’t like it, come down,” the speaker said, sarcastically describing the flooded scene as “rivers of joy.”
“So gentlemen, you can see what you are seeing. You can see what I am seeing. These are rivers of joy,” he said.
“You can see them. You can see lawyers. Everybody finding his way. One way or the other. Every place. I think we need some fishing hook here. Wow. Another lady being backed.”
The speaker also asked one of the people being carried whether she enjoyed the experience.
“Depends on where they are being backed and whether they enjoy it. They like the work,” the lawyer said.
When asked how much she paid, the response was, “N5,000.” The speaker then said, “You can see them. Welcome to River State. Wow. That is the Rivers State NBA Conference 2026.”
Sowore’s criticism followed a heated exchange between Amaechi and the human rights activist at the 66th Annual General Conference of the NBA in Port Harcourt on Monday, August 24, 2026, where the former Rivers governor defended his record in office.
Amaechi, who governed Rivers State between 2007 and 2015, before serving as Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation under former President Muhammadu Buhari, challenged Rivers lawyers at the conference to take Sowore around the state and show him projects he claimed to have executed during his tenure.
“Where are Rivers lawyers? Please, take Sowore around. I said I built that road, I built this road, I built this primary school, I built that primary school,” Amaechi said.
He also defended his record as Minister of Transportation, particularly the railway projects initiated and completed during his tenure under former President Buhari.
“I built the Lagos-Ibadan railway and the Abuja-Kaduna railway, and they were working during my time,” Amaechi said during the exchange.
Amaechi’s claims about his achievements in Rivers State are also reflected in a record published on his official website, which lists 890 kilometres of roads, more than 300 model primary and secondary schools, 160 primary healthcare centres, power projects that increased generation capacity from 70MW to 700MW, and several bridges, interchanges and flyovers among the projects undertaken under his administration.
The former governor’s published record also states that his administration provided free tuition, uniforms, books and school feeding for pupils, while constructing model schools equipped with ICT centres, libraries and laboratories.
It further lists the construction of the Kelsey Harrison Hospital and Justice Karibi-Whyte Hospital among his administration’s health projects.
However, Amaechi’s claims have become the subject of renewed political scrutiny following Sowore’s response and the emergence of the video showing lawyers struggling through floodwaters at the venue of the same NBA conference.
Sowore subsequently used the footage to challenge Amaechi’s assertion that his administration transformed Rivers State, asking Nigerians to examine the condition of roads and infrastructure in Port Harcourt for themselves.
The incident has sparked renewed criticism of the condition of roads, drainage systems, and public infrastructure in Port-Harcourt, with Sowore using the footage to challenge claims by successive administrations that Rivers State has undergone significant infrastructural transformation.
