A major empowerment event in Port Harcourt descended into protest on Friday as hundreds of women staged a walkout, demanding to be addressed by either Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, or the wife of the Rivers State Governor, Lady Valerie Sim-Fubara.

The programme, hosted at the EUI Event Centre in GRA under the Renewed Hope Initiative of the Office of the First Lady, was meant to benefit 500 women across the state with various empowerment materials.

Expecting the physical presence of Senator Tinubu, many of the women—dressed in traditional attire and double wrappers—gathered early in anticipation. However, tensions escalated when Dr. Theresa Ibas, wife of the state’s Sole Administrator, was introduced as the keynote speaker.

The crowd swiftly erupted in chants of “We want SIM!” and “We want Valerie Fubara!”, referencing Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his wife, whom the protesters consider the state’s legitimate First Lady.

“We were told the First Lady of Nigeria would be here. If not her, then the wife of our governor should speak to us—not someone who doesn’t represent us,” one participant told reporters.

Another protester, Favour Ekpeye, clarified that the walkout was not aimed at the President’s wife but at what they described as an inappropriate substitution. “The propaganda that we rejected the wife of the President is not true,” she said.

“We came here prepared to welcome Her Excellency Senator Remi Tinubu. See me in my double wrapper. But we were shocked to see someone else. We support our governor and his wife, and we want to be addressed by those who truly represent us.”

Despite attempts by the organisers to calm the crowd, the women gradually exited the venue, chanting slogans in support of the Fubara administration.

The incident comes amid heightened political tensions in Rivers State, where issues of legitimacy and representation have remained contentious following the appointment of a Sole Administrator by the federal government.