The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2027 general elections, Omoyele Sowore, has taken aim at former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, after a video showing lawyers struggling through severe flooding at the venue of the 2026 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt surfaced online.
Sowore, in a post on X on Friday night, August 28, 2026, used the footage to mock Amaechi over his earlier claims about the infrastructure projects executed by his administration during his tenure as governor of Rivers State.
The video showed lawyers attending the NBA conference struggling to navigate floodwaters at the exit point of the conference venue. Some were seen rolling up their clothes and wading through the water, while others resorted to being carried on the backs of local residents to escape the flooded area.
Local residents were reportedly charging lawyers thousands of naira to carry them through the floodwaters, with the cost said to range from N3,000 to N5,000 depending on the distance.
The situation also created business opportunities for residents selling slippers and umbrellas to lawyers and other conference attendees whose footwear and clothing were affected by the flood.
A commentator in the video identified the location as the exit point of the NBA conference in Rivers State and expressed surprise at the condition of the area.
“This is the exit point for the NBA conference, Rivers State 2026,” the commentator said. “You can see what we have gotten into today. You can see the lawyers. Some of them are getting backed.”
The commentator subsequently asked how much lawyers were paying to be carried across the flooded area.
“One backing is N3,000,” another person responded.
The commentator later noted that the amount had risen to N5,000 for some of the lawyers, depending on the distance they needed to cover.
“One backing is N5,000. Or if you don’t like it, come down,” he said sarcastically.
The scene was further described as “rivers of joy” as lawyers, described in the video as officers in the “Temple of Justice”, struggled to find their way through the flood.
The commentator also asked one of the lawyers being carried whether she enjoyed the experience, to which she reportedly responded that it depended on where she was being carried.
When asked how much she paid, she responded, “N5,000.”
Reacting to the video, Sowore recalled a heated exchange between him and Amaechi at the NBA conference on Monday, August 24, 2026.
During the exchange, Amaechi had challenged lawyers in Rivers State to take Sowore around the state to see the projects he said his administration executed while he was governor between 2007 and 2015.
“When @ChibuikeAmaechi stood at the @NigBarAssoc Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt boasting, ‘Take @sowore around Rivers State, I built this road, I built that road, I built this school, I built that school,’ he may have forgotten to look around him,” Sowore wrote.
“This was the venue of the very NBA conference where he made those boasts. Look around Port Harcourt. Look at the roads.
“Look at the infrastructure. Look at the condition of a state they governed and claimed to have transformed. This is the Rivers State they built.”
Amaechi, during the earlier exchange, had told Rivers lawyers: “Where are Rivers lawyers? Please, take Sowore around. I said I built that road, I built this road, I built this primary school, I built that primary school.”
The former governor also defended his record as Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation under former President Muhammadu Buhari, highlighting railway projects undertaken during his tenure.
“I built the Lagos-Ibadan railway and the Abuja-Kaduna railway, and they were working during my time,” Amaechi said.
Amaechi’s claims about his achievements in Rivers State are also contained in a record published on his official website, which lists numerous infrastructure and social development projects undertaken during his administration.
According to the published record, the administration constructed about 890 kilometres of roads, more than 300 model primary and secondary schools and 160 primary healthcare centres.
The record also lists power projects which, according to Amaechi’s published account, increased electricity generation capacity from 70 megawatts to 700 megawatts.
Several bridges, interchanges and flyovers were also listed among the projects attributed to the administration.
The former governor’s published record further states that his administration provided free tuition, uniforms, books and school feeding for pupils, while constructing model schools equipped with ICT centres, libraries and laboratories.
It also lists the Kelsey Harrison Hospital and Justice Karibi-Whyte Hospital among the health projects executed during his tenure.
However, the latest flooding incident has reignited debate over the condition of roads, drainage systems and public infrastructure in Port Harcourt, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall.
Sowore has seized on the incident to challenge the narrative that Rivers State was transformed through the infrastructure projects claimed by past administrations.
The video has also drawn attention to the difficulties faced by residents and visitors when flooding affects major roads and access routes in the state, with lawyers attending one of the country’s biggest professional gatherings reportedly forced to pay local residents to physically carry them across the flooded section.
The political dispute between Sowore and Amaechi has therefore moved beyond their verbal confrontation at the NBA conference, with the flooding footage providing fresh ammunition for Sowore to question the former governor’s infrastructure legacy.
While Amaechi’s supporters point to the projects attributed to his administration as evidence of his achievements, Sowore has challenged Nigerians to judge the legacy by the present condition of roads and public infrastructure across Port Harcourt.
The controversy comes as questions continue to be raised over recurring flooding, drainage infrastructure and the ability of urban roads in Port Harcourt to withstand heavy rainfall.
For Sowore, the images of lawyers paying up to N5,000 to be carried through floodwaters at the very conference where Amaechi defended his infrastructure record have become a potent political symbol of the gap, as he sees it, between claims of development and the reality confronting residents and visitors in Rivers State.