Barely one week to the governorship and House of Assembly elections, the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been thrown into a fresh crisis after Tony Okocha, a former aide of ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi, declared himself the party’s leader in the State.
Okocha, the National Protocol Director of the APC Presidential Campaign Council and the South-South Coordinator of the Bola Tinubu Vanguard, at a press conference in Port Harcourt on Sunday, claimed that the former Minister of Transportation is no longer the leader of the APC in the State.
Okocha who accused Amaechi of supporting and voting for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in the February 25 presidential election while he was still a member of the APC, said such anti-party infractions were enough to remove the former governor.
Okocha, a former Chief of Staff to Amaechi when he was governor, alleged that the action of the ex-Minister was the “height of anti-party activity”, adding that “Amaechi has long abandoned the party.”
“It is clear cut and certain that our former leader, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, became the leader of the party on grounds of him being a serving Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Okocha told journalists.
“A day before the presidential election, he ordered his supporters to vote for the candidates of the PDP. We also have it on record that he also voted for the candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“That necessarily by nature, disqualifies him as the leader, and that I, Chief Tony Okocha, who won election with my own faction, for our presidential candidate is now the leader of APC in Rivers State,” he said.
However, the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Darlingron Nwauju, while reacting to the development in an interaction with journalists, said Okocha was no longer a member of the APC.
“Is Tony Okocha an APC member? He is merely a member of an independent campaign outfit for Tinubu but not an APC member,” Nwauju declared.
“Please ask him to mention the names of just five out of the 27 executive members of the APC in his ward. Tony is a ‘confli-preneur’ and has a history of transactional politics.
“Are you not aware that the campaign outfit which he belongs to here in Rivers State is torn apart because of money allegedly donated to them by the governor of Rivers State?
“Has he been able to account for all the monies passed through him? Even the PCC/ICC he belongs to is in disagreement with him.
“And he has not been able to assert himself on them. Please, remind Okocha that when the pillars of the APC in Nigeria will sit down to talk, he won’t be there,” he added.