…As Rivers APC Caretaker boss, Okocha, demands apology
Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State has been accused of setting aside over N51bn to organise jamborees in the guise of thanksgiving services around the state.
The governor has also been asked to apologise to Rivers’ people for allowing his aides and supporters to present half-nude women of the state as protesters.
The government has however, written off the accusation and said the man propagating it has lost touch with reality.
Read also: Fubara should resign now for ‘incompetence’ – Rivers APC caretaker boss
The Rivers State caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) headed by Tony Okocha, a man who openly works for FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, told newsmen on Monday, March 12, 2024, that the thanksgiving was taking place in all the 23 local council headquarters and 319 wards.
Okocha, in a press briefing at the new headquarters of the APC at 268B Aba Road, said his information was that each event takes not less than N150m (making N51bn). On how he knew the amount, he said people should not forget he was chief of staff in Government House in Port Harcourt and that his office handled such tasks where the government would not be linked directly.
Read also: Fubara’s hint on willingness to resign sends shockwaves in Rivers
Okocha was foisted on the party when the elected executive council believed to be loyal to former governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was dissolved to pave way for the structure to revert to Bola Ahmed Tinubu through Wike and through Okocha. Wike’s structure produced the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Fubara, who went ahead to win. Soon after, both godfather and godson fell apart to this day despite intervention by Tinubu.
Now, after failed impeachment attempt, the party is asking Fubara to resign with immediate effect to allow competence to return to governance. Okocha told newsmen that Fubara was leading a decrepit administration and that nothing was happening in the state. “resign now’, he told the governor, his friend.
Okocha said what is on show is jamboree by the governor. Thanksgiving service in the 23 LGAs and 319 wards of Rivers state. The question is, who are they thanking and for what? They say they are thanking God for Fubara’s victory at the Supreme Court. It was a first of all a flimsy case at the tribunal for alleged improper resignation of Fubara.
“That was canvassed at the tribunal and it failed. The petitioners canvassed it at the Court of Appeal, and it failed. Was anybody expecting it to succeed at the Supreme Court?
“You cannot compare this to serious cases in some other states like Plateau. The Supreme Court saved Plateau State. The governor there organised an inter denominational thanksgiving church service where the governor danced like King David. That was the end of that there.”
He asked: “What is the essence of the jamborees in Rivers State to cost N150m per thanksgiving. They only spew inuendoes. At one such event, a former Assembly member called the ex-governor a madman. Or, is it that it is a guise to insult people? Check all the toxic statements so far made, they are all at such thanksgiving events.”
He went on: “Was it not at one of such events that Rivers women were dehumanized, half-clad and put out in the media, all in the bid to show that they have come to show support. You gave them placards the women cannot even read. People called us from all parts of the world asking if our people can so behave. Now, it is the government that is showing that their people are decadent. It shows it is a reign of decrepit government.
“The APC will not stand at akimbo. We demand that the governor and his protegees should apologise to the Rivers people.”
Reacting, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, said: “Chief Tony Okocha has lost touch with the happenings in the State. Governor Sim Fubara is the best thing that happened to the State and majority of Rivers people are appreciative of his ability to rewrite the political history of the State.
“The noisy way he is used to, is no longer the way to go. We are rebuilding the entire state and the revival fire is sweeping through the entire 23 LGAs.
“Let me end with this adage “Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, but he who caught it, chased it.”
