Former Chief of Staff to the Rivers State Government and stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Tony Okocha, has urged President Bola Tinubu to concede the ministerial appointment of Rivers State to former Governor Nyesom Wike.
According to him, Wike was instrumental to Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Okocha, a former Chief of Staff to Rotimi Amaechi, accused his former principal of abandoning the APC in Rivers State after he lost the party’s presidential primary to Tinubu.
He also urged the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general elections to stop misleading Nigerians with claims that he (Abe) worked for Tinubu’s victory.
Okocha, who was the Coordinator of the BAT-Vanguard, an acronym for the disbanded Bola Ahmed Tinubu Vanguard in the South-South, alleged that Amaechi supported the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
According to him, following the fact that “both Abe and Amaechi never supported the president during the election, they do not deserve to reap from his victory.”
He noted that Wike deserves to be appointed minister in Tinubu’s cabinet.
He recalled that prior to the party’s presidential primary election, the APC in Rivers was in crisis, adding that the Abe-led faction which he belonged to then supported the president during the election.
He, however, claimed that many chieftains of the party were surprised when Abe defected to the SDP two weeks after the emergence of Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate.
He alleged that if Abe had worked for Tinubu, the president wouldn’t have lost his (Abe) polling unit to the presidential candidate of the SDP, Adewole Adebayo.
According to him, it is against commonsense and nature for the SDP governorship candidate to reap where he did not sow after abandoning the party for his ‘personal interest’.
Okocha explained: “There’s no politician living in Rivers today that can challenge Wike. We have said that whatever is due to us in Rivers, should be handed over to Wike because he knows those people who worked for Tinubu.
“If you name Tinubu’s soldiers, even those that hates me the most will say I was at the epicenter of Tinubu’s victory.
“However, if there is any benefit that accrues out of what I did, that is secondary but for people to turn truth on the head because of appointment, I will not accept that.
“What Abe is doing is simply grandstanding. He is now eulogising the president. He didn’t know that Tinubu was the best when he left him to another party. The man has now won and he started grandstanding. It will not work. I will not support it. It is against common sense, reason and nature.
“For Amaechi, you saw when he accused the INEC chairman of working for Tinubu. Amaechi claimed that INEC chairman worked under Wike when he was a minister. In other words, everything that was in favor of Tinubu was an anathema to Amaechi. He worked for Atiku
“Also, Abe has been on television stations claiming that that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) did not work but he is currently owning to the victory of an election he claimed that BVAS did not work.”
On why Wike should defect to the APC and be given the state’s ministerial slot, Okocha described the former governor as a man with electoral value who can deliver victory at all times.
He stated: “When Ameachi had left, Magnus had left what remained was the little I could control with an amalgamation of support groups. From 1999, PDP has been in control of Rivers state back-to-back. Even in 2015, when I was Chief of staff, Ameachi was governor and during that Presidential election, APC scored about 69,000 votes, PDP scored about 2 million votes and we were in charge and he doubled as the DG of Buhari in 2015, in 2019 Wike had become governor, it became even worse.
“In 2015, APC scored 7 per cent, in 2019 we scored 5 per cent. Then, in 2023 APC is now winning. What was the magic? Wike’s PDP scored 32/32 in the state House of Assembly in Rivers state, Wike’s PDP scored 12/13 of House of Reps seats, Wike’s PDP scored 3/3 of the senatorial seats, Wike’s PDP won the governorship and then Wike’s PDP did not win presidential election in Rivers State. What happened?
“Is it not the reason that all of us know that the G-5 Governors said until things are made right, until power shifts to the south and that until Ayu resigns that they will not work for Atiku. Now, the spin doctor who made sure everything worked out for Tinubu, was Wike.
“We have 6,868 polling units in Rivers state across 319 wards and across 23 LGs and you and I know that every politician has his own polling unit agents that are paid on stipend or the other. Who paid for the 6,868 agents in Rivers for APC?
“The activities of the G-5 is instrumental to the success of Tinubu in Nigeria politics today. Look at the ratio, APC won 12 states, PDP won 10 states. Assuming PDP people worked together, they would have taken more states. I am telling you that in our own case, I am saying it categorically, I would have been the one person to say no don’t give it to him because I had the house. He didn’t come to see an empty house. I would have decided to appropriate everything to myself and behave like a crab.
“If you have somebody that is more than you, why don’t you invite the person? If he helped us to win in 2023, are we now going to tell him to come to us in 2027 to help us win? Why don’t we bring him in because he has value to add. No politician in Rivers state today can surmount Wike. No one in Rivers state can challenge Wike. He is the best.
“We are saying that whatever is due us as Rivers state as should be handed over to Wike because he knows who worked for Tinubu in Rivers. I would have claimed it all because I was the last man standing when everybody took off but we are saying, look, this man contributed more.”
