Erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has replied former Chief of Staff to former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Tony Okocha, for claiming that his principal voted for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, during the February 25 presidential election while he was still a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Okocha alleged that Amaechi was no longer the leader of APC in Rivers, adding that his own faction of APC had mobilized and galvanized support in the state for the APC presidential candidate, Sen. Bola Tinubu, now President-elect and that the party won fair and square in Rivers State with the huge support it received from Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
Okocha further claimed that the action of Amaechi was the height of anti-party activity as the former Minister of Transportation, had long abandoned the party, saying he was now the leader of the APC in Rivers.
Reacting to the claims put forward by Okocha, Eze noted that the crude and inordinate desperation for power has taken a better half of Okocha, whom he described as a snooping rabbit contracted by third parties to meddle in the affairs of Rivers APC and create confusion therein in a desperate bid to further the political pursuit of his paymasters.
In a statement, Eze reemphasized that the said Tony Okocha had long left the APC after a failed ploy by saboteurs to infiltrate and trigger fresh crisis in the party through him.
Eze said, “Tony Okocha’s inclusion into the APC presidential campaign council came through the recommendation of Sen. Magnus Abe, a member of SDP, and not the APC as the former Chief of Staff has no business in the Rivers APC and could not have been so recommended having carried himself as an anti-progressive jobber.”
He called on those within the circle of the President-elect, Tinubu, to limit their dealings with Okocha to the personal relationship they enjoy and not to extend it to the affairs and concerns of the Rivers State Chapter of the APC as such endeavour will mean bringing Okocha into the party through the backdoor.
Eze said former Minister, Amaechi is a committed progressive and couldn’t have abandoned the presidential candidate of the APC in which he has invested so much, to declare support for another candidate on the eve of the election.
He called on the public to disregard Okocha’s claim that he leads a faction of the party in Rivers State, stressing that the party is very much intact under the undisputed leadership of Amaechi, who was on ground on Saturday, February 25, to ensure that the interest of the party and its candidates were protected.
