Amaechi-backed APC chairman says Tony Okocha is not known to party membership register

Nyesom Wike-backed Tony Okocha who is leading the charge against Gov Sim Fubara of Rivers State has received a harsh knock on the head. He has been told that he is not known to the membership register of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.

Emeka Beke, chairman of the court-recognised state executive council, backed by Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, one-time governor of Rivers State, issued a statement in Port Harcourt 24 hours after Okocha called for the removal of the state governor in which Beke accused Okocha of impersonating him (the real state chairman).

Okocha was part of a group in the APC during the Muhammadu Buhari period who refused to participate in the membership update of the party. Okocha was accused of working with then Gov Wike along with Magnus Abe and Igo Aguma. They often took the APC to court on every matter till the party was never able to contest any election due to many court orders. One of their many suits challenged the membership review exercise which the group shunned. Okocha and his cohorts were accused of working with Wike to hold the APC down. Their names were still outside the new membership register when the 2023 primaries came and Abe insisted on contesting the governorship primaries despite his name not being in the new register. Later, he jumped ship to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) where he tried his luck in the guber business without success, only to jump back into the APC when Tinubu became president. At that point, many observers lost track of who was an APC member and who was not, and which register was authentic.

When Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged APC presidential candidate, Okocha said he went to the presidential camp and was accepted in the face of the main party organs allegedly not showing interest in the BAT campaigns due to Amaechi’s injured feelings for losing in the APC primaries.

Read also: You too are an outlaw – Rival Rivers APC faction to Tony Okocha for defending rule of law while serving outside the law

Soon, Wike’s camp created a faction in the Rivers APC and made Okocha the new leader.

This was how the Amaechi camp with all the legalities behind them looked like orphans because of the overwhelming support of the presidency and the national working committee (NWC) of the ruling party. Court judgments against the Okocha/Wike camp seemed not to mean much.

The only likely support the Beke/Amaechi camp seems to get in the state is their alliance with the Fubara movement in the state. This has made some court cases to favour them against the camp controlled by Okocha/Wike.

Now, Beke has lambasted Okocha for calling for the impeachment of the governor soon after the Supreme Court ruling.

Beke said: “My attention has been drawn to another impersonation where one Tony Okocha, a non-member of our dear party, addressed the media as chairman of APC, Rivers State.

“We wish to inform the general public that Tony Okocha is not known to us as a member of the party and cannot speak with the name of our party.

“We, therefore, call on the good people of Rivers State to disregard the baseless call for the resignation of the governor of Rivers State by Tony Okocha, who has presented himself as an enemy of the state and who takes delight in seeing the state in crisis.

“As a party I am warning Tony Okocha to seize and desist from parading himself as the APC chairman in Rivers State, which he is clearly not.”

As a party, Beke went on, “We are committed to supporting good governance. We are happy that the governor of Rivers State, His Excellency Siminalayi Joseph Fubara, has rescued the state from the act of executive rascality, ceaseless abuse on our established cherished traditional institution, gross mismanagement of the state monthly statutory allocation, and has demonstrated that accountability and transparency are the cornerstone for good governance.”

The faction said Okocha should learn that the issue of impeachment is a constitutional matter with well enacted provisions and procedures, and not what an individual will wake up and begin to address the media on.

He said the governor is constitutionally and democratically elected by Rivers people and should be respected, hence, he said, the unwarranted call for resignation is an insult to Rivers people and abuse of freedom of speech.

“I call on the Inspector General of Police, the Director of State Security Service (DSS), and other conventional security agencies to note that Tony Okocha is an imposter and should be called to order to forestall breakdown of law and order in the state, because, he tried to become a member of our party through the back door and has been sacked by a court of competent jurisdiction. He is thereby acting in fragrant disobedience of the law.”