Rivers: Sacked Ehie Edison’s loyalists meet to decide 2027 fate
Rivers: Sacked Ehie Edison’s loyalists meet to decide 2027 fate
The streets of Port Harcourt may be quiet but they are not calm. The removal from office of Rt. Honourable Ehie Edison as Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, by Governor Siminalayi Fubara has forced “the boys” to enter the kitchen. And there is a brewing response.
The political tectonic plates of Rivers State have shifted once again, and the resulting tremors are being felt among the state’s youth. The sudden removal of Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie as the Chief of Staff to Governor Siminalayi Fubara on February 26, 2026, has sent shockwaves through the “Sim-plified” movement, leaving a vacuum now filled with secret meetings, hushed ultimatums, and a sense of betrayal.
While the official narrative frames the move as a “strategic realignment” for peace, the streets of Port Harcourt tell a different story: one of a sacrificed general and a restless army.
Why was Ehie made the sacrificial lamb in a “peace deal” that remains opaque?
Edison Ehie was more than a Chief of Staff; he was the “General” who held the line when the Rivers State House of Assembly became a literal and figurative battlefield in 2023. His resignation as a lawmaker and his subsequent appointment as Chief of Staff were seen as the ultimate badge of loyalty to Governor Fubara.
However, reliable reports suggest his removal. – alongside the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, – was a non-negotiable condition in the fourth peace deal brokered by President Bola Tinubu between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike. “You don’t throw your best soldier under the bus to please an enemy who wants your head on a platter. This isn’t peace; it’s a surrender”, a youth leader told this medium in Port Harcourt.
But right now, those core loyalists of Rivers’ “King of Boys”, as Hon. is addressed, it has been unearthed, are in the kitchen to cook. But what are they cooking?
As the news of the “sack” (officially termed a replacement by Sunny Ewule) settled, the focus shifted to the Orashi region and the corridors of power in Port Harcourt. Investigative leads indicate that high-stakes meetings are currently being held by Ehie’s core loyalists to determine their next move.
The Neighbourhood sources disclosed that the meetings are shadows of what might shake Rivers politics, very soon. “The young men have chosen to run their destinies”, a knowledge source hinted.
Our highly dependable source disclosed that Rt. Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo, a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, is a prominent face among the attendees. His presence suggests that the legislative wing of those who stood by Governor Fubara in the heydays of his legislative travails, is deeply unsettled.
Another face identified by this medium’s source is Hon. Ezebuwon Ichemati, a former Lord Mayor of Port Harcourt and a grassroots mobiliser. Known by his followers as “The Sugar Lord Mayor”, Ichemati’s involvement signals that the “battle for the streets” is being mapped out.
It was further gathered that the Orashi Youth bloc is also “on the move”. Ehie, a former President of the National Union of Rivers State Students, NURSS), retains a cult-like following among the youths of Ahoada and the wider Orashi region.
Truly, as it stands now, efforts by this medium to dig up the agenda for the meetings were like trying to dig up water from a rock. But a source close to these sit-downs suggest the discussions are focused on the group hewing an “independent path”, potentially forming a new political third force ahead of 2027. Though Hon. Ehie Edison is being wooed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, with a senatorial ticket in 2027, The Neighbourhood had gathered, he is said to be displeased that he was offered as sacrifice by Gov. Fubara.
The removal of Ehie comes at a delicate time. Governor Fubara has already begun submitting new commissioner nominees—including Datonye Alasia and Tonye Bellgam—to the Assembly for screening. By clearing out his “inner circle” of fighters, Fubara may be buying temporary peace with the Wike camp, but he risks losing the very “youth shield” that protected him during the 2023/2024 impeachment attempts.
The “cooking” in the kitchens of Oko-Jumbo and Ichemati is a spicy, dangerous brew. If Governor Fubara cannot convince his base that Ehie’s exit was a tactical masterstroke rather than a sign of weakness, he may find himself a general without an army in the coming months.
The shadows over the Government House are lengthening.
In Rivers State, when the youths stop cheering and start “meeting
