We Didn’t Cede Ministerial Slot to Wike, Rivers APC Insists

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

 The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted that they did not cede the ministerial slot to the immediate-past state Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, as being speculated.

A chieftain of the party, Mr. Tony Okocha, had in different occasions called on Wike to come over and lead the APC in the state.

Okocha, who was a Chief of Staff to former state Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, had also called on President Bola Tinubu to cede ministerial position for Rivers State to Wike.

Reacting on the calls yesterday at a briefing in Port Harcourt, the state party Publicity Secretary, Mr. Darlington Nwauju, said Okocha is not a member of the party and has not received the mandate from the national secretariat of the APC to speak on the behalf of the party.

Nwauju noted that so many groups worked for the victory of the president in Rivers State, and denied interacting with any group known as the ‘Amalgamated Bola Tinubu Campaign Council’, who allegedly claimed to have worked for the party during the 2023 general election in the state.

According to him, “Our attention has been drawn to publications made in some national dailies about the Rivers State APC purportedly ceding the ministerial slot of the state to the immediate-past state Governor, Nyesom Wike.

“The state chapter of the party has never interacted with the Amalgamated Bola Tinubu Campaign Council as we have more than a hundred NGOs and support groups who worked for the APC in Rivers State.

“However, for the purposes of clarity, no NGO or individual outside the officially recognised party structure has the authority of the state chapter of the party to award any entitlements to the former governor who is obviously a card-carrying member of the PDP.

“We wonder where the group or individual derived his powers to speak for APC from. However, for the umpteenth time, we want to say that Mr. Tony Okocha is not a member of our great party, and we have not received any communication from the national secretariat of our party that he has been granted waiver to join our party.

“So we want to officially dispel that sponsored rumour targeted to package the political ambition of Wike. We, therefore, reject this obvious public ridicule and assault on our sensibilities as a political party.”

Speaking further, Nwauju said: “Assuming without conceding that Wike passed through some back channels to fund the presidential campaigns in Rivers State, which the state chapter cannot even account for, does his Greek gift now qualify him to be rewarded with a ministerial slot for sponsoring 12 different court actions to stop Rivers State APC from fielding candidates for the 2023 elections?

“He also sealed party offices of his opponents, encouraged his loyalists to invade campaign venues and leaving humongous destruction in the trail, denied parties access to state owned facilities for campaigns,  and introduced anti-democratic rules beyond the ones set by the INEC.

“The most dangerous state to raise an APC flag or campaign since 2014 till date is Rivers State. What then would this party say to hundreds of our party faithful whose freedom and rights were infringed upon through illegal detentions, bodily harm and even outright killing?”