[8][9][10] The ensuing legal challenge case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the election of Fubara in a ruling in January 2024.
PDP presidential nominee Atiku Abubakar won the state by 50% and the party gained all three senate seats while also sweeping the House of Representatives elections.
[18] In terms of his performance, Wike was commended for infrastructural development, healthcare improvements, investments in sport, and pushing against illegal oil bunkering.
[19][20][21] However, his administration was criticized for its months-long delay in forming a cabinet, his unconstitutional declaration of Rivers as a "Christian state" and poor response to the demolition of a mosque, spending billions of naira to purchase luxury cars for lawmakers and judges, attempting to illegally ban protests during the height of the 2020 End SARS demonstrations, his perceived obsession with starting public disputes with other elected officials, the irregular payment of government salaries and pensions, and disrespecting traditional rulers.
[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Wike also came over fire for his autocratic moves to crackdown on opposition by banning protests multiple times and most notably, when he had intraparty rival and House of Representatives member Farah Dagogo arrested and jailed for weeks to prevent him from running for governor.
The long-running dispute between former governor and federal Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and former senator Magnus Abe which led to the Rivers APC's disqualification in 2019 continued ahead of the primary as their factions held separate party congresses and elected different leadership in 2021; national APC leadership later accepted the results of the Amaechi-supported congress as legitimate.
[41] There were also protests from others within the party that decried the opaque process and the choice of Cole as he has never held elected office and supposedly lacks political structures in the state.
[67] Dagogo, who had already bought and submitted forms to run in the primary, attempted to attend the mandatory party screening exercise on 28 April but was detained by police and held in jail indefinitely.
'[69][30][70] In the days directly before the primary, reports emerged that Wike had settled on Siminalayi Fubara—the immediate past Accountant General of Rivers State—as his preferred candidate despite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission declaring Fubara wanted for fraud on 24 May.
[88] Fubara and Cole are both extensively connected to Wike and Amaechi, respectively, leading to the labeling of the general election as a continuation of the power struggle between the two.
However, the emergence of Magnus Abe—a former senator who spent years feuding with Amaechi over control of the state APC—as the SDP nominee added even more uncertainty to the election.
More important factors included Fubara's ongoing corruption case and Wike's feud with the national PDP over the aftermath of the presidential primary, which he lost in May 2022.
[6] The next month, on 7 November, the first public poll—conducted by NIO Polls and commissioned by the Anap Foundation—was released for the race with it showing a heavily fragmented field that Fubara led while Cole (who was included despite the court ruling) and Abe trailed in second and third, respectively.
Analysts noted the high likelihood of voter apathy due to a sense that actual votes do not impact the announced results in wake of the widespread rigging reports from February along with fear of violence that had been targeted at opposition strongholds.
[94] Other factors considered by pundits included the tense political atmosphere, bigotry against non-indigenes, and continuous attacks on opposition figures.