APC Chair: No Sign of Fubara, Wike’s Reconciliation in 2025

•Says former governor did not disparage ex-governor Odili  

•Refutes alleged plan to join PDP

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, Tony Okocha, yesterday  expressed doubt over the possibility of a truce in the state this year, blaming Governor Siminalayi Fubara for failing to extend the olive branch during ex-Governor, Nyesom Wike’s recent birthday.

In an interview on Arise Television, Okocha argued that the altercation between the two political figures will not come to an end soon, insisting that Fubara missed an opportunity to mend fences with Wike during the festive season.

“I don’t see Rivers State coming out of this quagmire in 2025. By reason of prognosis, I am not a prophet of doom. The governor of Rivers State and his immediate benefactor should not be enemies. Even if they were, the festive season was a time to exchange convivialities and goodwill.

“What could it have taken you? Your boss, as he used to call him, celebrated his birthday in December. Even if it were just a scroll of news to say ‘congratulations on your birthday,’ that doesn’t take anything away from you, from my own assessment.

“The governor who is suing for peace can just drive to the minister’s house or anybody else’s to say, ‘I come to celebrate with you on Christmas Day.’ I am sure nobody will chase the governor away if he visits his home. But instead of doing that, he’s threatening brimstone and fire.I don’t see peace. I don’t see peace anytime soon because the governor holds the key,” he predicted.

Besides, Okocha interpreted the reported attack by the FCT minister on former Governor Peter Odili as that of someone merely advising that Odili should not  take sides in the quarrel between two sons of his.

“If I am to interpret what the FCT minister said, the FCT minister merely said to the governor, I mean, to our leader, Dr. Peter Odili, that you are a father, and that the role of a father is not to take sides when children are having disagreements. That’s my understanding. Because it was overreaching for the former governor, the man that we respected so much in River State.

“We still respect him so much in Rivers State. He brought some measure of pride to the state. I’m sure Nigerians haven’t forgotten the resource control cap that he introduced in Nigeria. So he had carried that aura along for a long while,” Okocha asserted.

He maintained that labelling Wike as someone who wanted to claim Rivers as his personal estate, was not right.

Pointing out that Wike had no intention of disparaging Odili, Okocha noted that the elder statesman should have called the warring parties together, with a view to settling them, rather than backing one party against another.

“I’m not holding forth for the minister of the FCT, but in all of these scenarios that I’ve noted, I was present. It’s not like a reporter’s speech. I was present and sitting pretty at the table near the high table, as people would call it, ” he added.

Okocha’s defence of Wike, a supposed member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers state also highlighted the complexity of the issues in the disagreement between the FCT minister and the governor.

The APC chairman also denied wanting to join Fubara’s camp, stressing that any report or picture of him meeting with the chairman of Obio/Akpor local government in Rivers to facilitate the move was a mere hallucination.

“I am thinking of diction that is stronger than hallucination. For anybody to imagine that at my level I have attained in politics, if I want any meeting or something to be brokered, I will go to Chijioke Ihunwo …” he stressed, describing insinuations that he was fraternising with Fubara’s team as  “absolute nonsense”.