The Rivers State APC leadership has backed the state’s immediate-past governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike, in his selection of statutory ministerial appointments that will be zoned to the state.
The development comes as Sir Tony Okocha, the former Chief of Staff to Rotimi Amaechi as governor, revealed how his former boss (Amaechi) and Senator Magnus Abe almost sabotaged President Bola Tinubu’s electoral chances in the 2023 general elections.
Chief Okocha, who was the Chairman Local Organising Committee for Bola Tinubu Campaign Council in Rivers state, said at a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja that the immediate past governor, Wike, worked hard to deliver Asiwaju’s victory in the state, so he had been invited to join the party and become the leader.
According to the current leader, Sir Okocha, former governor Amaechi worked against the APC during the election, and Senator Magnus Abe delivered the Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in his ward and zone, so both have no moral justification to benefit from Asiwaju’s presidency.
Speaking on Magnus Abe’s role, Okocha said:
My worry is that you may just not have agreed to work with Tinubu. It’s a different ball game. But that you worked with Tinubu and then at the point that you were needed the most, midsea, you abandoned ship. You rejected and goofed on your own. You ported to another party or chose not to work for Tinubu again, and then only to return when the victory is here to say I was Tinubu’s first son. Does that work?
He (Magnus) said that as a member of PSC that whilst they were reviewing states, visa vie how they stand the possibilities and impossibilities of Tinubu winning in the respective states, Rivers state was not counted in as one of the states where Tinubu will score 25% at the time. So for him, remaining there would have been absurd. So he felt ‘okay, this man will not win, so let me go to another party to try my own personal interest’.
And I’m asking him when he got to this SDP Did he go there as an ordinary member? No, he went out and became the candidate of the party.
Amaechi refused to be pacified, even when Tinubu visited him in his house and said let’s work together. He refused. He attended only two rallies, campaigns in whole of Nigeria.
What I know is that the preponderance of those who supported Tinubu alongside me who stood and stuck to our guns for Tinubu, we gave ourselves a name, amalgamation of Tinubu, Shettima support groups on Rivers State. 48 groups. Now, the group had met after the election, the group met and we asked ourselves what the position was. In that meeting, it was not part of our agenda. We had a two-point agenda. One, what brief as to what has happened?
The second one was, what is the way forward? In the cause of that meeting, a motion was moved from the floor saying to us that we should invite Governor Wike to come over to APC and take over the leadership of APC. And when that motion was moved, it was followed with a standing ovation, spontaneous.
The reason is when Amaechi had left. Magnus had left. What remained was the little that I could control and with this amalgamation of support groups, we wooed the PDP. Are you not aware of the G5 who was the man behind the G5?