2023 Rivers State gubernatorial election

The 2023 Rivers State gubernatorial election was held on 18 March 2023, to elect the Governor of Rivers State, concurrent with elections to the Rivers State House of Assembly as well as twenty-seven other gubernatorial elections and elections to all other state houses of assembly. The election — which was postponed from its original 11 March date — will be held three weeks after the presidential election and National Assembly elections. Incumbent PDP Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike was term-limited and could not seek re-election to a third term.

Party primaries were scheduled for between 4 April and 9 June 2022 with the Peoples Democratic Party nominating former state Accountant-General Siminalayi Fubara on 25 May while the All Progressives Congress nominated businessman Tonye Cole on 26 May. On 25 October, a Federal High Court ruling nullified all Rivers APC primaries but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January 2023.

After collation completed on the day after the election, INEC declared Fubara as the victor. In the official results, Fubara won about 303,000 votes (~63% of the vote) to defeat Cole with about 95,000 votes (20% of the vote), Abe with nearly 47,000 votes (~10% of the vote), and Itubo with roughly 22,000 votes (5% of the vote). The results were immediately rejected by the runners-up due to widespread reports of irregularities and violence. The ensuing legal challenge case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the election of Fubara in a ruling in January 2024.