…APC kicks
By: Felix Ikpotor
A former Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, Chief Tony Okocha has been appointed to coordinate the electioneering campaign for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Rivers State.
This followed his appointment as coordinator of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Solidarity Vanguard (BATS-Vanguard) in the state.
Okocha’s appointment was contained in a letter dated 10th of August, 2022, signed by the director- general of BATS-Vanguard, Professor David Pam Yakubu and addressed to the state chairman of the party, Chief Emeka Bekee.
According to the letter, Okocha is to coordinate the entire state towards a successful canvassing for grassroots support for the Tinubu/ Shetima ticket for the 2023 general elections.
It also urged the state chairman to support the coordinator in achieving the task.
However, the appointment is not going down well with some APC members in the state who believed that an ally of the former minister of transportation, Chibuike Amaechi should have been appointed to coordinate the campaign.
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a chieftain of the party said the action was an attempt to usurp the powers of the state executive council of the party.
He said the appointment “smacks of manifest recklessness and gross insensitivity laced with deliberate ill-will on the part of some individuals who are hellbent on usurping the party’s leadership in Rivers State in the pursuit of their selfish private vendetta.”
Eze urged the leadership of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Solidarity Vanguard to revert to the party leadership to appoint “a creditable member of the party to carry out such a crucial and important function.”
Meanwhile, Barr Worgu Boms, a former attorney- general of the state has rose in defense of the appointment of Okocha.
Boms in a social media post recalled how Okocha stood for Tinubu while Amaechi and his supporters in the state chapter of the party were against him.
He wrote: “Amaechi said those who voted Tinubu at the primaries are regretting. Tony Okocha did not say so or anything like that”.
“Amaechi joined Tinubu critics in saying that the clerics who came to the Shetima unveiling were not pastors. Tony Okocha, to the contrary, not only did he not say so, insisted they were pastors and bishops!
“Tony Okocha, on the other hand , had been with and supporting Tinubu since Tony Okocha was born, upto the time of the primaries and beyond, even when Amaechi and his people were taunting Tony for the support, reminding Tony that he was wasting his time as it would never be Tinubu, who, according to them, Buhari would never allow to succeed him, that it was Amaechi Buhari had vowed with God, to succeed.
“Tony Okocha, undaunted, joined with other like-minded persons for Tinubu, to hold a rally for Tinubu in Ikwerre LGA.
“Even while there, these same Amaechi people tried to stop the rally using the police, but, as was the case with all their plots, they failed, woefully, spectacularly.
“When Tinubu sent several bags of rice this way during the Yuletide, then, and it was publicly acknowledged with photographs of Tony with others beside the bags of rice, they all wrote sweet literature, condemning us and Tony, asking, mockingly, how a former this and a former that, can be snapping pictures with Tinubu rice.
Tony stood his ground.
“Now, Tony is made to coordinate the same Tinubu Group, and the same people who opposed him and taunted him are querying his pedigree to lead the same group. They want Amaechi’s appointees in the name of their APC EXCO, to replace Tony? Is it that we did not go to school or what?”.
