It was a roll call of bigwigs of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and other political parties on Saturday at Ubima, Ikwerre local government area of Rivers State as the Vice Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC),
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Saturday, laid his mother, late Mary Oruah Amaechi, to rest.
Top on the list was Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate, and his wife, Titi; Rauf Aregbesola; Emeka Ihedioha; and other leading members of the party at the event.
Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Vice Presidential Candidate, who arrived Rivers State the previous day to engaged Rivers people in a town hall meeting, reportedly stayed back to lead an NDC team that included Dumo Lulu-Briggs, governorship candidate for Rivers State.
Yemi Osibanjo, former Vice President of Nigeria, led other national and state leaders, such as Aminu Tambuwal, Datti Ahmed, Dino Melaye, Celestine Omehia, and others.
Also on Friday, Chris Ngige, former governor of Anambra State, and serving and former members of the National Assembly were at the service of songs for the late Mary Oruah Amaechi, held at the Corpus Kristi Cathedral in Port Harcourt.
The occasion saw loads of encomiums heaped upon late Mary Oruah Amaechi who was described as compassionate and committed to the development of her family, community and others.
Speaker after speaker, which included Judith Amaechi, her daughter-in-law; Andrew Uchendu, senator formerly representing Rivers East; and Dakuku Adol Peterside, who spoke earlier at the service of songs described her as a mother and grandmother who gave freely to the development of others.
Uchendu and Peterside agreed she was “stubborn”, as some might term it, in the defence of that which she believed to be just. A trait, which they said, her son, Chibuike Amaechi, inherited from her.
Judith Amaechi, former Rivers first lady and wife to Rotimi Amaechi, in obvious reference to her husband in her tribute to her mother-in-law, said, “Your son, the strong man, he also cried.”
The colourful burial ceremony was successfully held despite taunts and clear attempts by the Minister of FCT Chief Nyesom Wike and his supporters to dampen the event.
Wike, who has been locked in a supremacy battle with Amaechi his predecessor as Governor had taunted Amaechi as having no house in his father’s home as expected of Ikwerre men.
He also recently claimed that Amaechi had no political capital to qualify as running mate to a presidential candidate.
The two taunts were dispelled on Saturday as Amaechi laid his mother to rest in his personal house, situated a walking distance from his father’s house.
Secondly, despite attempt by the Wike-led Rainbow Coalition’s distract the burial by fixing a a civic reception for the FCT Minister same day at another neighbouring community in the Ikwerre LGA, the 13-ward of the local government, led by host Ubima and neighbouring community Ozuoha, trooped out in large numbers to pay their last respects to Mary Oruah Amaechi and also receive visiting national and state leaders.
Despite the absence of Wike and Siminalayi Fubara, Rivers State governor, at Amaechi’s
national and state leaders were on hand to support Amaechi to pay respects to his late mother.
A day earlier, on Friday, September 4, social media was awash with suggestions that Wike and the Rainbow Coalition, an amalgam of Rivers State chapters of five political parties led by the FCT minister, “had embarked on a mission to upstage Amaechi’s mother’s burial.”
Village sources claimed that Wike had paid “secret” visits to three Ikwerre-speaking LGAs on Friday.
The aim of the visits, according to the sources, was to strengthen “stakeholders’ resolve” to “abandon Amaechi’s mother’s burial and attend Rainbow Coalition’s civic reception for Wike.”
The Ikwerre LGA chapter of the coalition, led by Charles Wobodo, council chairman, had scheduled a civic reception for Wike for Saturday, September 5, 2026, ostensibly clashing with the Amaechi family’s event.
Tochukwu, an indigene of Ubima, and his colleagues claimed money was given to each stakeholder from the 13 wards in Ikwerre Local Government Area, with “more promised to those that attend the next day.”
The state chapter of the ADC, through Chizy Enyi, its spokesperson, had a day earlier also claimed the police was involved in the plot to block Omagwa, thus hindering passage for visitors.
Daily Times confirmed that a canopy, with traditional musicians, was set up right in the middle of the major road leading to Ozuoha, Ubima and other Ikwerre communities.
A commercial motorcycle operator at Omagwa and an indigene of Omerelu, another Ikwerre community, said, “They (Wike and Samuel Nwanosike, the coalition’s leader in the LGA) tried to stop Amaechi from bringing his mother home through Omagwa (described as the traditional route), but the young man passed through Ipo (host community to the Port Harcourt International Airport) and Omademe.”
President, The Mirror Leadership Initiative,
Eugene Chinwo, frowned at the seeming face-off between the two Ikwerre leaders, Amaechi and Wike, describing it as detrimental to the development of the ethnic nation.
