Flaks in Rivers over Amaechi’s remarks against Tinubu

…Okocha takes Amaechi to the clears but Nwauju counters

The remarks by former governor of Rivers State and former minister of transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has drawn flaks in Rivers State.

Tony Okocha, his chief of staff during his time as governor, who is now chairman of a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state loyal to Tinubu and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, has called a press conference in Port Harcourt and lambasted Amaechi.

Darlington Nwauju, the publicity secretary of the elected exco loyal to Amaechi, has countered the punches by Okocha.

Amaechi had said at an event where he was guest speaker that Tinubu would not willingly hand over in 2027 except Nigerians forced him to. He said Nigerians were docile and allowed leaders to get away with terrible governance.

Reacting, Okocha whose exco has been declared as illegal by the court (but went on appeal) told newsmen that Amaechi was a ‘humpty dumpty’ (ugly clumsy person) and one who lost woefully.

Okocha said his former boss refused to work with the mainstream APC and also allegedly turned down offers by Tinubu as runner up after the APC primaries. He said Amaechi did not bring any project to Rivers State as super minister for seven years.

Countering him, Nwauju, publicity secretary of the court endorsed state executive committee (EXCO) of the Rivers State chapter of the APC lambasted Okocha.

In a statement in Port Harcourt on Monday, February 3, 2025, the spokesperson described Okocha as ‘duplicitous’, meaning a character who presents one image but remains in another conflicting personality.

Nwauju stated that a duplicitous character like Okocha who he said cannot account for his time at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has since his appointment, steadily deployed reverse psychology to pull the wool over the eyes of Rivers people in order to hide his visionless stray into the NDDC.

He went on: “But this ‘pot’ that has made it a duty to always call the kettle ‘black’, must know that we understand his antics and we sound it as warning to him that Rivers people deserve accountability for his lacklustre tenure at the NDDC and we shall henceforth begin an expose on several fraudulently awarded projects begging explanations linked to him.

“Having maintained a steady voyage reeking in inconsistency, how do we even bother responding to a man who once said the 27 defected members of the State Assembly were now under his umbrella. “A month later, the same person on national TV claimed they never defected but that he only tried to woo them! How can someone who does not know the color of our party register now tell the world who has left or joined the party seeing that his very first attempt at scoring unmerited political gains with Martins Amaewhule & Co ended up in fiasco.”

He wondered: “What can a cockroach possibly be saying in the gathering of fowls?”

“No-matter how Tony Okocha tries to use political theatrics as smokescreen for his disservice to Rivers State whether in the pretense of representation on the NDDC board or destruction of Rivers APC, we cannot all be cajoled by his serial deceitful gymnastics.

“Displaying branded caps and agbada does not change the fact that he cannot be trusted and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot win the trust of any reasonable Rivers man.

Read also: What Tinubu failed to do before removing subsidy – Amaechi

“We thought that by now he would have been made the MD of NDDC as reward for his much advertised duplicitous loyalty.

“Paying his bills by generating political crises is not a problem, destroying other people’s reputation in order to gain political relevance is what every reasonable man should query. Why has this desperation not led to Minister Nyesom Wike resigning for Tony Okocha to take his place in cabinet?

The spokesman wondered why former Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s name become the only currency that Okocha and his group could use for their political trade by batter? “The only reason why Okocha is doing everything possible to construct a gulf in the APC family is to vex the original stakeholders of the party in the state like Amaechi and force him out of a political party he laboured to build in Rivers State.”

Nwauju said Rivers people and Nigerians must read in-between the lines to understand why a man who drips with controversies right from his kindred to his village, cannot stop fanning the embers of balkanization within the APC.”

Nwauju pleaded with the party faithful to continue to ignore the vituperations and caustic desperation of those he said hated Amaechi and his likes who were rightfully sacked by two different High Courts in Rivers State.