• Thursday, September 19, 2024
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BusinessDay

APC national working committee backs Tony Okocha, orders him to conduct congresses

Osun govt attributes high debt profile to 12 years of APC rule

…Elected exco stands by court order against CTC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) camp in Rivers State that was returned to power by the court has kicked against the decision of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to back the Tony Okocha-led caretaker committee (CTC).

In a statement Friday afternoon, the camp issued a statement rejecting the decision by NWC to back a CTC that was denied life by a court.

The NWC met in Abuja on Thursday, August 15, 2024, to affirm support for the CTC instead of the elected executives.

Deputy National Secretary of  APC, Festus Fuanter, said that Emeka Beke who was reinstated by a Rivers State High Court had already been sacked by another court.

The NWC rather asked Okocha’s CTC to go ahead and conduct congresses of the party from wards to state in October 2024.

Reacting, the Bekee-led exco said through a statement signed by Darlington Nwauju, the state publicity secretary, said the NWC response casts Nigeria as a country operating outside the rule of law. “Yet, this is a Party and Government that resort to the courts of the land from time to time.”

Nwauju noted that there is no court order anywhere in Nigeria barring or sacking the elected executives and that the interim order previously issued in April 2024 has since expired after the mandatory 14 days.

The statement said anything else being done by the NWC to prop up the CTC amounted to acting outside the law and courting violence. Okocha has said he is going ahead to do his work and dared anybody who did not like it to meet him at the congresses.

Okocha has to either appeal the High Court judgment proscribing the CTC or ignore it and move on hoping the end would justify the course.