Former Chief of Staff to former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Tony Okocha, claimed that his principal voted for the People’s Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, during the February 25 presidential election while he was still a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has responded.
Speaking to reporters in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Okocha claimed that Amaechi was no longer in charge of the APC in Rivers. He also claimed that his own faction of the party had organised and galvanised support in the state for Sen. Bola Tinubu, the party’s then-elect president, and that the party had won the state of Rivers State with overwhelming backing from Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
Okocha further asserted that Amaechi’s move was the height of anti-party activity because the former transportation minister had long since deserted the party and was now claiming to be the APC’s leader in Rivers.
In response to Okocha’s assertions, Eze noted that the crass and excessive desire for power has taken a better half of Okocha, whom he characterised as a snooping rabbit hired by outside parties to meddle in the affairs of the Rivers APC and cause confusion therein in a desperate attempt to further the political pursuit of his paymasters.
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Eze reiterated in a statement that the alleged Tony Okocha had long since departed the APC following a botched attempt by saboteurs to infiltrate and start a new crisis in the party through him.
Eze stated, “Sen. Magnus Abe, a member of the SDP, suggested Tony Okocha’s appointment to the APC presidential campaign committee, not the APC, as the former Chief of Staff has no place in the Rivers APC and could not have been so recommended having portrayed himself as an anti-progressive jobber.”
He urged those who are close to the incoming president, Tinubu, to keep their interactions with Okocha to their personal relationships and avoid extending them to the issues and problems of the APC chapter in Rivers State, as doing so would entail bringing Okocha into the party through a backdoor.
According to Eze, former Minister Amaechi is a devoted progressive who could not have announced his support for a different candidate just before the election, abandoning the APC presidential candidate in whom he had spent so much.
Insisting that the party is steadfastly headed by Amaechi, who was on the ground on Saturday, February 25, to ensure that the interests of the party and its candidates were safeguarded, he urged the public to dismiss Okocha’s assertion that he leads a faction of the party in Rivers State.
