Businessman and political commentator Isaac Fayose has alleged that five governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are secretly backing the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Fayose made the allegation in a video, claiming that the governors were unwilling to publicly identify themselves with the opposition because they remain members of the APC.
According to him, the unnamed governors are allegedly opposed to efforts by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to secure Rivers State and the FCT for the APC in the 2027 elections.
Fayose further alleged that the governors had offered financial support to polling agents in Rivers State and the FCT, reportedly proposing ₦200,000 per polling unit for agents who would resist alleged attempts to manipulate election results.
“They are offering all our polling agents in Rivers State and FCT, they are offering you two hundred thousand per polling unit if you can stand together against rigging,” Fayose said.
He claimed that the alleged sponsors were concerned about possible manipulation of election results in the two areas and wanted polling agents to monitor the process. Fayose, however, did not publicly identify the five governors or provide documentary evidence to substantiate the allegations.
He also said he had personally told the governors that he did not want President Bola Tinubu to return to office. According to Fayose, however, the governors’ alleged priority was preventing Wike from delivering Rivers State and the FCT to the APC.
The allegations concerning the identities of the five governors, their purported support for Peter Obi and the NDC, as well as the alleged ₦200,000-per-polling-unit offer, have not been independently verified.
APC Governors Reject Political Alliances That Could Weaken Party Fayose’s allegation comes amid an increasingly public disagreement between Wike and governors elected on the APC platform over the minister’s proposed “Rainbow Coalition” ahead of the 2027 elections.
The APC Governors’ Forum recently declared that its members would not participate in or support any political arrangement capable of weakening the party or affecting its candidates at the various levels of the election.
The position was announced by Imo State Governor and chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodimma, following a closed-door meeting in Abuja. Uzodimma said the governors had resolved not to endorse any arrangement capable of creating divided loyalty or undermining President Tinubu’s re-election bid and the electoral interests of APC candidates.
The development came against the backdrop of Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, which the FCT minister has described as a broad political movement aimed at mobilising support for Tinubu’s re-election across party lines. Wike has maintained that the coalition is not an APC structure and that his support for Tinubu at the presidential level does not prevent other political parties from fielding candidates for legislative and state elections.
Reacting to the APC governors’ position, Wike said President Bola Tinubu was aware of his political activities and the Rainbow Coalition. Speaking on Arise News’ Prime Time, Wike said he had not approached the APC Governors’ Forum to establish an alliance. “There is no day I went to the Governors’ Forum to align between both coalitions. There’s no day,” he said.
Wike argued that supporting a presidential candidate should not automatically mean supporting the same party’s candidates in every other election. He cited the 2023 general elections, arguing that voters had demonstrated that they could support one party’s presidential candidate while voting for candidates of another party in National Assembly elections.
The former Rivers State governor also referenced voting patterns in states including Imo and Ebonyi to support his argument that presidential and legislative voting could produce different outcomes on the same election day. Wike Criticises APC Governors Wike also criticised the APC governors who opposed the Rainbow Coalition, describing them as “smart” but “politically lazy.”
He questioned why governors who support Tinubu’s presidential bid could not simultaneously support candidates of their respective parties in other elections. Wike further said the opposition to his political activities did not begin with the Rainbow Coalition, arguing that some governors had been unhappy with his appointment as FCT minister.
“There is nothing that I do that I don’t tell Mr President,” Wike said, insisting that Tinubu was aware of his political activities. The FCT minister also predicted that Tinubu would win the FCT in the 2027 presidential election.
“I will tell you that the President will win in the FCT,” he said. The competing positions have highlighted differences over whether support for Tinubu at the presidential level can coexist with support for candidates from different parties in state and National Assembly elections.
For now, the identities of the five APC governors alleged by Fayose to be secretly supporting the NDC and Peter Obi remain undisclosed, while the claim of financial support for polling agents has yet to be independently established