* Calls on Tinubu to ignore Abe’s antics
Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
The Rivers State chapter of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has declared total support for former Governor Nyesom Wike as the new political leader of the state and intermediary between the state and the government at the central.
Tony Okocha, a former chief of staff to a former governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi, who assumed leadership of the party in the state before the February 25 presidential election, in an interview with journalists in Abuja Tuesday, disclosed how his former principal, governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Amaechi, and a chieftain of the party, Magnus Abe, worked against the APC during the February presidential election in the state.
Okocha said that the APC was left almost in disarray when Amaechi and Abe abandoned the party in the middle of the sea, delibrately leaving it to be submerged by storm till Wike came to the party’s rescue.
He expressed dismay over claims by Abe specifically, who he said wrote President Bola Tinubu off in the presidential contest, coming back to arrogate to himself “the first son of Tinubu in Rivers State”, just as he challenged him to produce “results from his two polling units, ward and local government” where Tinubu was said to have lost to Abe’s Social Democratic Party (SDP).
He said: “When Amaechi left, Magnus left, what remained was the little I could control with an amalgamation of support groups. Since 1999, PDP has been in control of Rivers State back to back. Even in 2015, when I was chief of staff, Amaechi was governor and during that presidential election, APC scored about 69,000 votes, PDP scored about 2 million votes and we were in charge and he doubled as the DG of Buhari in 2015, in 2019 Wike had become governor, it became even worse.
“In 2015, APC scored 7 per cent, in 2019 we scored 5 per cent. Then, in 2023 APC is now winning. What was the magic? Wike’s PDP scored 32/32 in the state House of Assembly in Rivers State, Wike’s PDP scored 12/13 of House of Representatives seats, Wike’s PDP scored 3/3 of the senatorial seats, Wike’s PDP won the governorship and then Wike’s PDP did not win presidential election in Rivers State. What happened?
“Is it not the reason that all of us know that the G-5 governors said until things are made right, until power shifts to the south and that until Ayu resigns that they will not work for Atiku. Now, the spin doctor who made sure everything worked out for Tinubu, was Wike.
“We have 6,868 polling units in Rivers State across 319 wards and across 23 LGs and you and I know that every politician has his own polling unit agents that are paid on a stipend or the other. Who paid for the 6,868 agents in Rivers for APC.
Okocha said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) G-5 governors’ activities were responsible for the success of Tinubu in Nigeria’s politics today, adding that: “Look at the ratio, APC won 12 states, and PDP won 10 states.”
He said assuming the PDP worked together, the party would have taken more states.
“I am telling you that in our own case, I am saying it categorically, I would have been the one person to say ‘no don’t give it to him because I had the house’. He didn’t come to see an empty house. I would have decided to appropriate everything to myself and behave like a crab.
“If you have somebody that is more than you, why don’t you invite the person. If he helped us to win in 2023, are we now going to tell him to come to us in 2027 to help us win? Why don’t we bring him in because he has value to add. No politician in Rivers State today can surmount Wike. No one in Rivers State can challenge Wike. He is the best.
“We are saying that whatever is due us as Rivers State should be handed over to Wike because he knows who worked for Tinubu in Rivers. I would have claimed it all because I was the last man standing when everybody took off but we are saying, look, this man contributed more,” he said.
Okocha described ‘Magnus’ media stunts’ as “mere grandstanding and only for his benefits”.
According to him, “My worry is that you may just not have agreed to work with Tinubu. It is a different ball game. But that you worked with Tinubu and then at the point that you were needed the most, mid-sea, you abandoned the ship. You rejected, you goofed on your own. You ported to an another party or chose not to work for Tinubu again, and then only to return when the victory is here to say I was Tinubu’s first son. Does that work?
“He (Abe) said that as a member of PSC, the strategy committee, that while they were reviewing states, vis-a-vis how they stand, the possibilities and impossibilities of Tinubu winning in respective states, Rivers State was not counted in as one of the states where Tinubu will score 25% at the time.
“So for him, remaining there would have been absurd. So he felt ‘okay, this man will not win, so let me go to another party to try my own personal interest. And I am asking him when he got to this SDP, did he go there as an ordinary member? No, he went out and became the candidate of the party.
“You now want to eulogize Tinubu. You didn’t know that Tinubu was the best person before he left for another party. It is now that he has won you want to grandstand, you want to eulogize just for appointment. It will not work. I will not support it. It is against common sense.”
Reacting to claims that he earlier said that Amaechi worked for Atiku, Okocha described his former boss as a bad loser who refused to be a good sportsman, using surrogates within the APC to sabotage Tinubu’s chances in the state.
His words: “He is not denying it. Amaechi refused to be pacified, even when Tinubu visited him in his house and said let’s work together. He refused. He attended only two rallies, campaigns in whole of Nigeria.”
Okocha recounted how Amaechi in one of his interviews about the credibility of the 2023 presidential election descredited the election and even went further to say that INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, was a product of Tinubu’s political empire. Consequently, Amaechi deployed Tony Cole, who was the APC governorship candidate in the state at the time to do his bidding.
He said: “The man (Tony Cole) was neither here nor there. And I told you that as PCC coordinator, he did nothing. No billboards, no banners, no posters, no jingles. In his campaigns, he never mentioned Tinubu. In his polling unit, he was there mobilising for Atiku in compliance and in keeping with the directive given to him by Amaechi.
“He was scared that if he identified with Tinubu, it will rub off on him in his own governorship quest. So for him, it was safe not ever to mention anything called Tinubu.
He recounted how the group met to run a post election analysis and concluded to confer on Wike the political leader of the state as reward for saving the party when it was almost on its knees.
“The group had met after the election and we asked ourselves what the position was. In that meeting, it was not part of our agenda; we had a two-point agenda. One, was a briefing as to what had happened. The second one was what is the way forward. In the course of that meeting, a motion was moved from the floor saying to us that we should invite Governor Wike to come over to APC and take over the leadership of APC. And when that motion was moved, it was followed with a standing ovation, spontaneous.
“The reason is when Ameachi had left. Magnus had left. What remained was the little that I could control and with this amalgamation of support groups, we wooed the PDP. Are you not aware of the G5?
“If he helped us to win in 2023, are we now also going to say to him while in PDP, come to us in 2027 to help us win? Why don’t we bring him in and say take over because he has value to add. Is it Ameachi? Wike flogged us. Is it Magnus? Wike flogged him.
“We have said whatever is due us as our own slot in Rivers should be handed over to Wike because he knows who and who worked for Tinubu in Rivers. Are we being selfish? I have told you here that I was the last man standing when everybody took off. But we are saying ‘look this man contributed more’,” he said.
