By: Felix Ikpotor
One of the leaders in the Senator Magnus Abe camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State accused of fraternising with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state with the aim of destabilising the APC have denied the allegation leveled against them.
Two persons including one Kelvin Okechukwu of APC Ward 4 Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area (LGA), the other from Ward 7 in Asari-Toru LGA, both claiming to be loyal to the Abe faction had in a video which went viral few days ago alleged that they were invited to a meeting at the Port Harcourt residence of one of Abe’s loyalists, Wogu Boms in presence of the Rivers PDP Chairman, Desmond Akawor, APC factional chairman, Golden Ben Chioma and others to sign an affidavit to join a suit by asking the court to nullify recent congresses of the APC in the state.
Reacting to the allegation at a press briefing in Port Harcourt, Dr. Bethel Oko-Jaja, an APC Leader in Opobo Nkoro and one of the four persons accused in the video described the said video as a “propaganda defective in logical reasoning,” stressing that no such meeting held anywhere and that he does not know the two in the video.
The party stalwart stated that he has never met or had any dealing with the state PDP chairman.
He stated, “I would not have responded to the poorly scripted propaganda, defective in logical reasoning, but, to keep the records straight and for the fact that the name of my principal and leader, Senator Abe was mentioned.
“The gentlemen who read the script do not know my name. Dr. Bethel Oko-Jaja, my name and person, cannot be same as Benedict Oko-Jaja. How do men who claim to be active members of APC loyal to Abe, one who claims to be under my leadership in Opobo/Nkoro, and have attended a meeting with me, don’t know my name? I ask whether they suffer Amnesia, nearsightedness, or Myopia?
“The purported Kelvin Okechukwu who claimed to be from my own Opobo/Nkoro LGA where I am a leader cannot be from Opobo Town as no son of Opobo bears the name Kelvin Okechukwu. To be emphatic, no War-Canoe House bears the name Okechukwu, as a family or surname. I challenge them to prove me wrong publicly.
“The purported staged managed press conference by these faceless individuals and political desperados, is nothing but a reflection of the frustration of APC Rivers leadership under the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, that has clearly been bedeviled by the spirit of Ichabod.”
Oko-Jaja insisted that the problem of APC Rivers cannot be solved by this “underhand method of the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi”.
Earlier, Rivers PDP State through its Publicity Secretary, Tambari Sydney Gbara while dissociating the party from the purported meeting stated, “This false story of a meeting between the Abe’s group and the PDP Chairman in Rivers was willfully and maliciously planned to embarrass the person of the PDP Chairman, Akawor.
“Otherwise one would have wondered how those hungry looking, unkempt figures were able to bankroll a press conference involving four national television stations and other top national dailies in faraway Abuja if not sponsored by their paymaster.
“They claimed to have met the State Chairman of PDP in the meeting addressed them on how to go about the case so that APC will not be on the ballot paper in the forthcoming General elections in 2023.”
Gbara boasted that Rivers PDP has oiled its machinery in readiness to give the APC a run for their money in 2023, recalling that the PDP had withstood the period APC stormed the state with all manner of federal might in previous elections.
“PDP is not afraid to face the APC, in the forthcoming general election in 2023, which will warrant it to initiate moves to destabilise them so that they will not be on the ballot.”
