The crisis rocking the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, took another dimension, Monday, with the emergence of a factional executive with Prince Peter Odike as acting chairman.
Odike, who was a former deputy chairman in the immediate past executive of the party and also said to be a loyalist of Senator Magnus Abe, told reporters in Port Harcourt in a press conference that he had upon the judicial annulment of the recent congresses, taken over the chairmanship of the party.
Odike said his executive will submit a statutory delegates’ list to the national body for the convention, insisting that there were no congresses in the state.
The acting factional chairman said“With the voiding of the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree midnight congress, our State Working Committee which they sought to succeed is still in place and intact.
“In one sentence: we are the State Working Committee and exco of the APC in Rivers State. This is the main reason we have called you (the press). Our party cannot be in any administrative vacuum.
“Since the court has decided that no congresses have been held with the voiding of the so-called congresses, the Dr. Davies Ikanya led-exco will continue with its works of running the party.
“The chairman, Davies Ikanya, is in London, UK, for medical examination and treatment. By the party constitution, the Deputy Chairman acts pending his resumption. I and other executives of the party have met and we have agreed that we will not allow the party to die.
“Consequently, I announce to you this morning that, I Prince Peter Odike, JP, the Deputy Chairman of the party in Rivers State, pending the return and resumption of duty by the chairman, is the Acting Chairman of the APC, Rivers State.”
He maintained that the minister of transport, Chibuike Amaechi remains the leader of the party as no one is contesting that with him.
Meanwhile, in a swift reaction to the development, the Publicity Secretary of the Ojukaye-led APC, Chris Finebone, maintained that the party in the state was being led by Hon. Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, under the leadership of Chibuike Amaechi.
Finebone said, “What happened this morning is a classic case of delusion of grandeur. It is like climbing the tallest building in town and proclaiming, ‘I am now the Pope Francis of the
Catholic Church, all Catholics must recognise me’.
“Sadly, that is not how the world works except in the world of the kindergarten that play in the sand. We wish them well in their house of exile.
“Be informed that not even an eventual creation of a faction of the party in Rivers State which they have been struggling to achieve will get them anywhere. They should ponder this deeply.”
