Election result: Wike behind APC’s positive showing in Rivers – Okocha

Some members of the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State have attributed the victory of the APC in the state to the effort of Governor Nyesom Wike.

However, members of the APC PCC loyal to Tony Okocha, the former Chief of Staff to former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, have insisted that Wike is still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Okocha who was the State Chairman, Local Organizing Committee of the APC PCC, in a press briefing in Port Harcourt, said they are ready to reciprocate the gesture of Governor Wike in the March 11th Governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the state.

He alleged that members of the APC led by former Minister of Transportation, Amaechi and the PCC members led by the Governorship candidate of the APC in Rivers State, Patrick Tonye-Cole, tried to sabotage the campaign of President-elect, Bola Tinubu in the state.

“No meeting of the PCC under the leadership of the Governorship candidate, Architect Tonye Cole was ever held. No campaign for the presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was ever sponsored neither in posters, billboards, jingles, campaign rallies nor in any form of campaign engagement was our presidential candidate mentioned,” he said.

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Okocha said since 2015, APC never had it right in Rivers state until the 2023 general elections.

The APC in Rivers state, however, in a reaction to Okocha’s claims, said he is not a member of their party in the state and therefore has no right to speak for the APC.

The State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Darlington Nwauju said Okocha has been working for the PDP for some years now.

Nwauju insisted that APC across party lines, have remained resolute in their support for the Governorship candidate, Patrick Tonye-Cole in the forthcoming March 11 election.

He said Okocha could not claim that governor Wike’s effort was responsible for the victory of APC, when Wike himself has denied involvement in the victory of the APC Presidential elections.

“Tony Okocha has acquired for himself a style of politics that is simply prebendal in nature. And I also think that he has made himself in the past few years, especially since 2018, a transactional politician.

“I have no issue with him transacting with the PDP and making one or two businesses with the APC Presidential Campaign Council to make a few naira. But for him to speak for the APC in Rivers state, he does not have the legal nor the moral right to do so.

“A very clear example why he has no right to claim to be a member of the APC or to talk about issues that relate with the APC in Rivers State, is the day of the presidential rally in Port Harcourt. He was not allowed to address the APC members. They booed him because they know his antecedents. We have no business with him. I do not even know which part he belongs to. For all I care, he works with the PDP in Rivers state.”