Tony Okocha, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee in Rivers state, has characterised the court ruling that ousted his committee and the ensuing controversy within the party as attempts to seize control of the party in the state and thwart President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reelection in 2027.
He pointed out that the primary goal is to make the party ineffective and subservient to the state government in order to repeat the election victory against the state’s ruling party that was seen in 2023.
Chief Emeka Beke was reinstated as Chairman of the committee after a High Court in Port Harcourt, the state capital, dismissed the caretaker committee on Monday.
On Thursday, the APC National Working Committee recognised the Okocha-led Caretaker Committee as the sole authorised party administrative body in the state.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja on Friday, Okocha insisted that Barr. Iheanyichukwu Dike and Beke had no authority to take that step. He said that the two had been suspended from the State Working Committee (SWC) for a considerable amount of time due to accusations that they had participated in anti-party activities.
Okocha further insisted that it was improper for the trial judge to have given orders to parties who were never included in the lawsuit, pointing out that the APC was never a party to the aforementioned litigation and that only its National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, was named.
“Beke was imposed on the APC in Rivers state. I was a member, an ally of Senator Magnus Abe when he was fighting right inside the APC. The reason why we fought was ineptitude, political high-handedness, and imposition. Beke was a product of these three issues but was imposed by the then APC leader, Rotimi Amaechi.
“The truth of the matter is that the party has a lot of intellectuals, professionals, and lecturers. We imagine how a person of low academic qualifications can preside over a meeting that some of us would attend but the APC leader then said they wanted somebody who had a street boy mentality. But the truth was that he wanted a surrogate, a stooge who would do his bidding. We fought but the APC leader was then a minister and his vestiges were here as leaders of the party.
“At the presidential primaries of the APC, Beke was the person who led the Rivers delegation of 56 delegates to vote for Rotimi Amaechi. That was how they scored 56 from the state.
“There is an intention to throw up Amaechi’s man and then he (Amaechi) becomes the APC leader and then uses the APC to fight Mr President in 2027. We will never allow that.
“Beke has shot himself in the leg by also referring to Amaechi as leader of the party in Rivers and the South-South. A man who refused to cooperate with President Tinubu then as presidential candidate, a man who worked for the opposition. Amaechi and his group aligned with PDP’s Atiku while Wike and his group from the PDP worked with us. After we won the election, Amaechi addressed the Press that Tinubu nominated the INEC Chairman and that the INEC Chairman worked with the current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike when he was at TETFUND and Wike was the Education minister. That person cannot be the leader of the APC.
“As far as we are concerned, this is the court of first instance and we had known the end from the beginning. If we had known the end from the beginning, why should we be perturbed by that court judgment? We knew and that was why we went ahead with our programmes, the solidarity rally for Mr President.
“We are in court. We are law-abiding. At our level, even when a judgment is gotten from the toilet, we will abide by it. But we have applied to the court of appeal for a stay of execution and an invalidation of that judgment. We are not fighting fisticuffs. We will use the law and we are ready to go the whole hug to the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court had ruled before that the courts should not meddle in the internal affairs of the party. The task of picking a party chairman is an internal affair of the party”, he ended.
