Later, Binabo was elected to the Bayelsa State Assembly, and served as deputy speaker and the State Commissioner of Youths and Conflict Resolution.[5][6][7] He also served as acting speaker.[8]
Binabo was elected speaker in July 2010, after his predecessor,Werinipre Seibarugo, was appointed deputy governor following the impeachment and removal ofPeremobowei Ebebi.[1][9] Binabo himself was initially floated as a candidate for the position.[7][10] During his tenure, he drew controversy for allegedly supporting a plan to fire 500 government workers.[11] In 2011, he was put on trial for allegedly failing to disclose that he was terminated from a position atRivers State Ministry of Education and forging certificates presented to theIndependent National Electoral Commission, which would have disqualified him from public office.[12][13] He was found innocent in October.[12]
He was made acting Governor of Bayelsa on 27 January 2012, afterTimipre Sylva, along with four other governors nationwide, was removed by theSupreme Court.[14][15][16][17][18] During his brief tenure as acting governor, he fired several members of Sylva's cabinet, and threatened legal action againstChevron following a high-profileoil spill.[19][20][21] He left office on 14 February 2012, and was succeeded byHenry Dickson of the People's Democratic Party.[14][17] He subsequently resigned the speakership, citing the fact that both he and Dickson hail from the same senatorial district.[2] He was succeeded byKombowei Benson.[2]
In June 2012, after Benson was impeached and removed from the speakership by a majority of the Assembly, Binabo successfully nominated his own former deputy speaker,Fini Angaye, to fill the vacant slot.[22]
He was expelled from the People's Democratic Party in May 2015 due to alleged anti-party activities in the2015 general election.[23] He, along with several dozen other PDP chieftains,formally defected to the All Progressives Congress in August 2015.[24] In the years since, he took on increasingly anti-PDP political positions.[25][26]
In November 2015, in a speech inYenagoa, he accused then-governor and former ally Henry Dickson of threatening to assassinate him over a local political rivalry. Dickson and the PDP denied all accusations and characterized them as lies.[4]
As of May 2018, he was the leader of one of the two major factions of the Bayelsa APC. The leader of the other major faction was Timipre Sylva.[27]
He was one of several prominent Bayelsa State APC politicians who endorsed PresidentMuhammadu Buhari's 2019 reelection bid.[28][29]
Binabo hailed fromOkunbiri,Sagbama.[4][35] Before entering politics, he worked for the Rivers State Ministry of Education as a teacher.[36] He was fired in 1987 for indiscipline, which later became a scandal in his political career.[37]
In March 2008, Binabo's 22-year-old son, Oyeinmomoemi Binabo, was abducted from campus atNiger Delta University. He escaped by running along the banks of theRiver Nun approximately 24 hours after the initial kidnapping.[6] Several months later, Oyeinmomoemi Binabo was killed in ahit and run car accident.[38]
Binabo's office at the Assembly was burgled in September 2011. Money and several valuables were stolen.[39]
On 29 June 2015, Nestor Binabo's wife, Martha Binabo, was kidnapped from her workplace by unidentified gunmen in military uniforms.[17] She was released, unharmed, inRivers State on 5 July after a ransom was paid.[40] She was released with a bag of fish and a N18,000 transport fare.[41] Reportedly, the kidnappers told her to preparepepper soup for her husband with the fish.[41][42]
Binabo survived being physically attacked or assaulted at least three times, including a home invasion resulting in a fatality in 2010.[43][8][44] He died after a lengthy illness on 29 June 2023, inAbuja.[30]
