Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has described a recent comment credited to Tony Okocha, that he was wooing embattled Rivers 27 former Lawmakers into his structure as the confession of a psychiatric patient.
Recall that Okocha had during an interview with newsmen in Abuja, said; “They also say that the 27 lawmakers currently fighting with Fubara have defected to the APC. …I need to make this clear to everyone. Much as I want to have them in my fold, none of them has agreed to join us. I am the one that should know if they did. But clearly, they have not. …what the lawmakers did was a political gimmick. I tried to woo them, but they kept vacillating and did not.”
Reacting to the comment in a statement made available to the media, Eze said the public is not surprised that despite the catalogue of damning proof in the media space buttressing the obvious fact that the lawmakers defected from PDP to APC, Okocha could come out openly to brandish falsehood to the contrary, noting that he survives on controversies such that is at play in Rivers State.
The APC chief said the fact that Okocha was equally present at the official defection which was covered by notable media houses, and yet tagging the flaw a political gimmick to help the former lawmakers escape the consequence of their action goes to show the depth of horrible damage that has been done to the fabrics of Nigeria by politics and the band of cheating players of the game.
” Morals have indeed gone to the dogs.
“It was same Tony Okocha who also boasted in a public glare how he used to manipulate elections, write election results and hand them over to electoral officials for announcement. To this day, this man suffering from moral bankruptcy is walking freely in the streets of Port Harcourt. In fact, he was even rewarded with an appointment with NDDC where he steals money to enhance his lying skill. “How would things get better?” He queried.
Chief Eze particularly condemned Okocha and Chibuike Ikenga for granting interviews and issuing press statements respectively using the name of Rivers APC, without authorization.
“A few weeks back, a competent court of jurisdiction asked this said psychiatric patient and his circle never to parade themselves as caretaker committee chairman and members for the Rivers APC, yet they keep issuing press statements on the party’s letterhead. That is the level at which impunity now operates in our polity. No respect for laws”, he stated.
“It is morally corrupt and pricks the human conscience to hear Chibuike Ikenga, an ousted Spokesperson to the kangaroo Rivers APC caretaker committee to still speak from his ousted position to ask Governor Fubara to abide by the court judgement and reconcile with Wike or face embarrassment.
“One wonders where Chibuike Ikenga and his likes muscle the courage with which they display these level of defects in their character. Court dethroned somebody from his former illegal position yet the person still lays claim over the office to and summon the courage to advise another on court verdicts.
“Tony Okocha, on his part addressed the press in Abuja last week where he claimed he is still chairman, caretaker committee of the Rivers APC and that the 27 former Lawmakers who defected from PDP to APC at the glare of the world never did so and that Wike is still a member of the PDP.
“With the level of moral decadence in display particularly on the Rivers Political playground, the likes of Wike, Okocha, Ikenga, the 27 peo-Wike former Lawmakers and their irks would have been banned from holding public office if the Nigerian Society were a sane one.
“Nigeria cannot make any progress in terms of respect for laws when people disobey laws and court verdict with impunity and walk away with it because they are close to power or hold public office. Okocha, Ikenga and their group would have been cooling off in a correctional facility by now if we were a serious country.
“What society condones the insolence and blatant disregard for law and court verdicts as we see in Nigeria especially from the Wike group”.
In the circumstance, Eze restated that notwithstanding the judgement of the Court of Appeal about which Wike and his people hallucinated, nothing has changed and Rt. Hon. Oko-Jumbo remains undisputed, the Speaker of the Rivers State Legislature.
He noted that hence Wike and his 27 former Lawmakers are so confident of electoral victory any time, as they have always boasted, they should comport themselves and allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conduct by-election to fill the vacancies created by their exit.
“The exercise would definitely offer them the opportunity to reclaim their mandates in line with due process of law”, he stated.
Eze called on Rivers people to remain firm in their resolve to support Governor Siminalayi Fubara in his cause to detach the state from claws of marauding plunderers and restore the lost glory of the State.
