PDP in Rivers is finished – APC caretaker chairman says

...Hails defection of 27 PDP lawmakers
…Calls on Wike to join, lead Rivers’ APC

The newly inaugurated caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has hailed the defection of 27 lawmakers to the party from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), saying that the ruling party in the state was finished.

The caretaker boss, Tony Okocha, told newsmen same day after the Martins Amaewhule-led group defected to the APC.

The members of the elected APC executives said they did not still recognise those speaking for the party because there was a court case and an order.

Speaking in his personal office at Rumuigbo, Okocha, seen as a Wike loyalist, urged the FCT Minister to join APC and take over leadership.

He said: “We are happy with what the 27 PDP lawmakers out of 32 have done by defecting to the APC.

“PDP is dead in Rivers State. This defection is a decapitation of the PDP in the state,” he said.

Okocha said the constitution allows for defection on the floor of the House. “It is just to prove that the conditions in the kitchen (in your political party) are too hot. Any further argument is left for the courts to decide.”

On why Wike once said APC was cancer and why he is being asked to join the so-called cancer party, Okocha said: “I would say the conditions that led to that statement are not the same today. We must put it in context. We must ask if those variables are still same. Wike is now a serving minister in the APC. Change is the only thing that that is permanent.”

He said more people joining the APC proves that the more the merrier.

“Some say the people are supporting Sim Fubara but it is important to know one may have grassroots support but may not factor in the role of opinion molders in the state. Those grassroots need opinion leaders that can insist on what should be done.”

Read also: Rivers crisis deepens as 27 assembly members dump PDP for APC

He described the former governor as a numero uno, a politician of note, the man with the science of election victories.

“He has beaten us every election year since 1999. He has clout at national and state levels. He is not a crowd person. We need him in Rivers State and we want to win the 2027 governorship election in this state. Thus, we call upon him to join the APC and lead. We say come over and lead us.”

Reacting, the “disbanded” APC state publicity secretary, Darlington Nwauju, said the dissolution of the executive was subject to a case still subsisting at the Court of Appeal wherein Emeka Beke is challenging his suspension by a group of five Exco members in suit no CA/166/2023. There is another interlocutory injunction served on the national secretariat of the party on 24/11/23 suit no M/1083/23 requesting an FCT High Court to protect the four-year tenure of the validly elected Excos of APC in Rivers State.”

He did not say anything on the defection of 27 lawmakers to the APC.