The head of the Fubara House in Opobo, HRH, Alabo Dagogo Fubara has dismissed claims being peddled which suggest that Sir Siminalayi Fubara, former Accountant General of Rivers State and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance is related to Governor Nyesom Wike.
The Professor Emeritus who spoke to journalists in Port Harcourt, declared that the governorship flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has no ounce of Ikwerre blood.
The Professor of Geodesy was reacting to insinuations in some quarters that Siminalayi whose name means ‘a poor man could give birth to a rich person’ shares blood ties with Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
The renowned historian who is credited with stopping the surge of the ravaging Atlantic which was advancing up the steps of St Paul’s through the embankment of the Opobo shoreline expressed surprise that people could go to any length to fabricate tales.
”It doesn’t matter where your mother would have come from”, the head of the Black Fubara Family remarked, “everyone is controlled or owned by a man”, saying the Opobo people are patrilineal.
Tracing the genealogy of Sim’s parents, the Emeritus Professor, who as head of Sim’s family who is like his father said, “His father, grandfather were bonafide Fubara. Siminalayi Fubara is a bonafide Fubara”, he stressed.
“I am 84 years old. I grew up knowing his father (Joseph). I know much about the place where I am Chief of by the grace of God.
“Those who are trying to link him with Governor Wike” in terms of birth, “are not doing us any favour.”
He said for him it is a non issue, saying “if a man from Rivers State is capable, he should be given what he is capable of delivering.”
Alabo Fubara revealed that Opobo does not give titles to non indigenes, adding that Siminalayi is a titled man whose father and mother have nothing to do with being Ikwerre.
Concluding, Professor Fubara added, “We the Ibani Ijaws are Patrilineal in making ancestral claims for who we are and belong. My paternal grandmother is from Azuogu, Ndoki while maternal grandmother is from Azumini Ndoki. Yet I am an Ibani Ijaw because by my paternity, I am a direct descendant of King Asimini said to be the first crowned King of Grand Bonny”.
