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•Says Amaechi frustrated us, denied APC of funds
Chairman of the local organising committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has revealed behind-the-scene details of how the party won the election in the state and the role played by former Governor Nyesom Wike.
Okocha, former Chief of Staff to a former Governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi, also opened up on how the state chapter of the party is firmly in support of Wike getting the Rivers ministerial slot in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government. He spoke with ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI.
There are claims that some APC members in Rivers State didn’t work for the party in the build-up to the presidential election. How true were such claims?
Before that election, Senator Magnus had left the party and I was left with the rubble and I had vowed not to leave. But, the ones who said they would remain now had to choose a name for the group because, if you don’t have a name, how do you gather the people? So, we now called ourselves Amalgamation of Support Groups for Tinubu and Shettima in Rivers APC. That was the plank upon which I could go on a media campaign for Tinubu. Now, because of how Tonye Cole came to be the party’s candidate, we couldn’t go against Amaechi. Cole was doing Amaechi’s bidding as the candidate of the party. In his engagement with the 32 local governments, he never mentioned Tinubu anywhere.
Now, as chairman of the PCC in Rivers, we were inaugurated in October 2022. Up until January 2023, we had not met, not even once. There was no jingle, no billboard, no poster, no campaign material whatsoever, in Tinubu’s name. The only day the man managed to call a PCC meeting, after we struggled and begged, because why he did that was that I had taken a chunk of APC members that I knew, to address a press conference. Three days later, he called a meeting but it was postponed and we agreed to reconvene on a Friday. The Friday we agreed to reconvene, we saw members who were not members of the PCC on the lead table. Sekonte David was to preside over the meeting of which I am a national PCC member, a national director and a non-member would preside over the meeting? We rejected that move because it was absurd. We asked for the PCC chairman in the state and Davies told us he wasn’t feeling well. We concluded it was sabotage. From that meeting, a chunk of us who were for Tinubu left for my house and that was how we briefed the media about the happenings in the party. He didn’t even budge after that. Amaechi had told the party in Abuja that they shouldn’t bring money, that he would defray election expenses in Rivers. The party believed him but the opposite was the case on ground.
Are you insinuating the former minister didn’t work for Tinubu?
None of Amaechi nor his group, or Abe and his group worked for Tinubu. What helped us in Rivers state was the crisis in the PDP, nationwide. Since the inception of PDP, when it was formed in 1998, Rivers has been a safe haven for PDP. Since 1999, PDP has won every election in Rivers, back to back. Now, in 2015, whilst we were in power and Amaechi was governor, I was his Chief of Staff, and we had all the paraphernalia of government, Wike still defeated us; PDP defeated us. We scored less than 70,000 votes in that election while PDP got more than two million votes. That was 2015.
So, what role did Wike play in the 2023 presidential election in Rivers?
I will tell you. I saw how Cole would go to television stations and ask me to show proof where Wike campaigned for APC. Isn’t that infantile reasoning? If there’s anybody who has benefitted from PDP in Nigeria, it is Wike. He has remained consistent and religious with the party. He has never moved to any party. In 1999, he became chairman of Obio Akpor Local Government. I was his executive assistant. He was a two-term local government chairman. Now, in the election of Rivers State, so that we will know what we are talking about here, there are 32 seats in the state House of Assembly. Wike’s PDP clinched the 32 seats. We have 13 federal constituencies in Rivers. Wike’s PDP clinched 12 while one went to the APC. The man who won is quite strong in his constituency. There’s nothing you will do that he won’t win the election. He’s quite popular there and nobody even took him to court. He’s the only person in Rivers State that nobody took to court. For the House of Representatives, PDP scored 12 over 13. The three senatorial seats in Rivers were cleared by the PDP. The party also won the governorship seat. Why didn’t PDP win the presidential election? I don’t know if you understand that?
Remember that Wike and his group had said to Atiku that, until you right the wrongs, which was elementary; tell Senator Iyorchia Ayu to resign so that we can balance out and until you do that, we won’t work with you. Now, go and check-all the five states governed by the G-5, which one did PDP win, with the exception of Oyo State? They didn’t win in Benue, Abia, Enugu and Rivers. So, Wike gave instructions to his PDP family because they had no candidate to vote for; work with APC and I was the one they were coming to work with. I was the arrowhead because Magnus had left the party, Amaechi had left. So, every collaboration was with me. As a journalist, at least you know that every party has an agent in every polling booth. A political party makes provision for its agent, for his or her welfare and transportation. In Rivers, we have 6, 868 polling units, spread across 319 wards, across 23 local government areas. Now, who pays the agents because APC didn’t drop money for us in Rivers. Also, remember this was the time the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (Godwin) Emefiele introduced that wicked policy. That policy, I can tell you, was targeted at Tinubu. So, there was no money. The only money that came to Rivers State was N10 million. I can tell you that authoritatively. I know who brought the money and who the money was given to.
Who brought the money?
The guy that was given the money handed over the money to his friend, Magnus Abe because the man was also chairman of Magnus’s finance committee in the SDP. When I heard of the money, I asked him of its whereabouts because as a national director, the national headquarters didn’t deal with me directly. They dealt with the state coordinator. He said he had handed it over to Magnus and was waiting for further directives. That was how that money ‘died.’ Even if one kobo came, what would it have done in 6,868 polling units?
So, who paid the party’s bill?
It was Wike. Where would the money have come from? He was the one who helped us and I can tell you that, without Wike’s support, huge support, material and finance, Peter Obi would have swept Rivers in that election. We cannot short-circuit his influence. If the G-5 were on PDP’s side, PDP would have won.
Some of your members are saying that the ministerial slot for Rivers should go to Wike…
Yes. I led that group.
Why would a PDP member be supported to take the slot?
Well, I’m going to explain to you. I have a background. The background I have is that I hate ‘use-and-dump, except I don’t want to play politics again tomorrow. Even if I don’t want to, it would also haunt my children. You brought people and midway, you abandoned them. After the elections and swearing-in and all that, I got to Port Harcourt and we agreed to hold a meeting. We called the meeting and two issues came up; congratulate ourselves and chart the way forward. At the twilight of that meeting, somebody stood up and raised a motion that it appeared that the PDP does not appreciate Wike’s value. He said that Wike, being part of our victory, with Rivers being in the bag of the 12 states that Tinubu won, he should take the slot. No sooner had he moved the motion that the whole hall erupted. It was a standing ovation. I was presiding and I was amazed. Everybody stood up that this was what they wanted. I only presided over the meeting. I couldn’t have said no. We then resolved that Wike should come to our party and if Wike comes to APC today, he is a former governor and I would not be his leader. That is the rule. Come to APC and help us. We said so at the meeting. We also said if Wike, who was in PDP, could support APC to win, why is it that APC, having won, cannot recompense the man who helped us to win? The point we have made, clearly, was that, it was Wike who helped us. Otherwise, I would have appropriated that to myself. I was keeping the house. If there was no house, Wike could have played with Obidients and said, ‘look, my interest would be my governor.’ There was a house and he came. He played 70 per cent, if not more, of the role that made the election of Tinubu in Rivers State possible. He has been so acknowledged by all of us; including Magnus, during one of his media rounds. He said it that Wike was a game-changer. Why is it that the man that has been acknowledged as the game-changer should be denied the benefits of helping us? Should the beneficiary be the man who left the party when he was most needed? Magnus abandoned and rejected the party. He didn’t believe in the cause. You cannot believe in something that would work and abandon ship.
Are you saying the president should ignore any person aspiring for the Rivers ministerial ticket?
Yes, please. That is our position. Thank God the acting chairman of our party in Rivers is here. Wike qualifies for that position. Giving that position to Magnus means you would have handed over out slot to SDP members.
