Erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has described as false, unfounded, fallacious and malicious, claims by one Tony Okocha that the leader of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State and former Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, supported and voted for the Presidential Candidate of the PDP, Alh. Atiku Abubakar in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly polls, against the candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Okocha declared that Rt. Hon. Amaechi, was no longer the leader of APC in the State, adding that his own faction of APC had mobilised and galvanized support in the state for the APC presidential candidate, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, now President-elect and that the party won fair and square in Rivers State with the huge support it received from Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike. Okocha further claimed that the action of Amaechi was the height of anti-party activity as the former governor had long abandoned the party, saying he was now the leader of the APC in Rivers State.
Reacting to the claims put forward by Mr. Okocha, Eze noted that the crude and inordinate desperation for power has taken a better half of Mr. Okocha whom he described as ‘a snooping rabbit contracted by third parties to meddle in the affairs of Rivers APC and create confusion therein in a desperate bid to further the political pursuit of his paymasters’.
In a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, Eze reemphasized that the said Okocha had long left the APC after a failed ploy by saboteurs to infiltrate and trigger fresh crisis in the party through him and that it amounts to mere fallacy for the same man to turn around and claim membership of APC when his name is missing on the register of members of the progressives family in Rivers State.
The party Chief said it is embarrassing to the APC for an intermeddler to begin to lay claim to certain things that are within the exclusive preserve of members of the party and called on the national leadership to respect the sacrifices of those who pioneered the party in the state and even at the centre and disregard any power play that will crumble the party in Rivers State, in the interest of progress.
Eze said Okocha’s inclusion into the APC presidential campaign council came through the recommendation of Sen. Magnus Abe, a member of SDP, and not the APC as the former Chief of Staff has no business in the Rivers APC and could not have been so recommended having carried himself as an anti-progressive jobber.
In demonstration of Tony Okocha’s disdain for APC in Rivers State, Eze highlighted that he canvassed support for the PDP gubernatorial candidate to the detriment of the APC candidate, Pastor Tonye Cole in the 11th March gubernatorial y and by last Sunday the same misguided Okocha was seen in the midst of Governor Nyesom Wike and PDP leadership celebrating Senator Mpigi who with their colloboratiion with INEC allegedly manipulated the south East Senatorial election results of Rivers State duly won by Ambassador Ngofa.
Eze queried that If Okocha is an APC member, what is he doing celebrating Senator Mpigi illegal and false victory with PDP leadership?
He called on those within the circle of Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu to limit their dealings with Okocha to the personal relationship they enjoy and not to extend it to the affairs and concerns of the Rivers State Chapter of the APC as such endeavor will mean bringing himinto the party through the backdoor.
Eze said former Minister Amaechi is a committed progressive and could not have abandoned the presidential candidate of a party in which he has invested so much to declare support for another candidate on the eve of election.
He called on the public to disregard Mr. Okocha’s claim that he leads a faction of the party in Rivers State, stressing that the party is very much intact under the undisputed leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi who was ground on Saturday 25 February to ensure that the interest of the party and its candidates were protected.
