There are indications that the battle for the seat of the Rivers South-East senatorial district in Rivers State in the forthcoming June 20, 2026 by-election will be between political parties under the “Rainbow Coalition”.
The coalition is a political alliance led by the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, created to unite politicians from the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the Action Alliance (AA), toward a shared political vision.
The senatorial by-election is to elect a replacement for the senator representing the district, the late Senator Barinada Mpigi, who died recently.
The four candidates who will participate in the election are Douglas Fabeke of AA, Osarosaka Erewari of APC, Sam Barikpia of LP and Senator Olaka Nwogu of the PDP.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP on the by-election, APC Youth leader in the Rivers South-East senatorial district, Hon. Innocent Ajaelu, said any of the candidates from the four political parties under the ‘Rainbow Coalition’ will emerge victorious.
Ajaelu said: “I want to put one notice right here that election is going to be the second test-running of what we have today in Rivers State. In Rivers State today, we don’t have one political party, what we have is coalition.
“We have done it before in the by-election of Khana Constituency and Ahoada-East Constituency. The coalition projected candidates and we delivered. People should not look at this coming by-election and subsequent elections in the state as a party thing; they should look at from that point of coalition.
“In the by-election, we are going to present candidates either in PDP, either in APC or any other party that is part of the coalition and together, coalition as a group will win that election.”
