Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Tony Okocha has alleged that political profiteers are fuelling the face-off between the state’s Governor, Siminialayi Fubara, and Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Okocha who spoke in an interview with Punch accused the governor of listening to crisis entrepreneurs and political merchants merchandising with him for their pockets.
He said; “I agree that this is one of the negative turnouts of somebody being handpicked, especially when you are not prepared. As far as I am concerned, even till tomorrow, go and interview him, you will find out that he was ill-prepared. He is still not prepared till tomorrow.
What the governor does is to open his ears to crisis entrepreneurs, and political merchants merchandising with him for their pockets. My friend, the moment your head becomes bigger than your pillow, you will fail, you know that you’re in trouble. So that is what they have gone to tell the governor to incite him. They have given ethnic colouration to the entire business.
“Meanwhile, on the way to this stardom, the Ijaw nation that he now proclaims and projects was never there. Wike was the know-all and do-all. He could have given it to Austin Okpara, he could have given it to Celestine Omehia or anybody from Ikwerre, heavens will not fall. But he sorted this one out and said take the ticket. In six months, in fact, from the information I got from both sides because as a statesman, part of my business is to see how we can make peace and I moved. I visited the governor in his office. He called me. I went to his office and we discussed it and I told him the naked truth because we supported him, and my group voted for him. I am qualified to do so, I don’t go to him sycophanting. I don’t go to him for profiteering.
I went to talk to him as a friend. I reminded him of his past and he confided in me that yes, he made mistakes, but for him, the mistakes he made were not enough and his predecessor took it too far. He agreed that he had left, he had abandoned the agreements. I said to him the man said to me that I should tell you that you are making attempts to destroy his structure, and no politician will just sit akimbo and watch you destroy his structure.
Except he doesn’t want to be a politician anymore.”
Okocha stated further that it is also absurd that in a House of 31 members, Governor Fubara presented the budget to only four members of the House.
He said; “Is it not absurd that in a House of 31 members, a governor presented the budget to only four members of the House? I don’t know why people test the will of Nigerians and citizens? They are testing our will.
That is what I feel the governor is doing, testing our will. I would have thought that he would use other means to solve these problems. The one-third of 31 should be about 11 or 10. But he presented the budget to four, can’t you see how they managed the crisis? They just showed us where he was reading something, to whom? They refused to show the proper setting, but you are only showing the governor reading something.
Who is he reading to and what is he reading? So will that stand the test of time? It is not that the other 27 members are dead. The truth is that they have defected from his party because of inactivity. The governor rose on the plank of consolidation and continuity. For six months, you need to see what the governor has done. One or two projects that he seems to have completed were 99 per cent completed by former Governor Wike.
Wike deliberately allowed him, to come and commission those projects. So what the governor is doing is affronting democracy, and we will not watch him (Fubara) suffocate our members. Those Assemblymen, who have defected to the APC are now our property and I’m their chairman. The only problem I have is that in this part of the world, sometimes we allow illegality to fester. It is crass illegality, for crying out loud.
It is not done anywhere to present the budget to four members, without the other 27 Assemblymen and then you demolish the Assembly complex”.
Okocha faulted the demolition of the assembly complex, stressing that the governor should have instituted a fact-finding committee to unravel the circumstances that led to the bombing before the demolition.
“Yes, he has the right, but the first question is as the governor after he visited the Assembly complex to see the fire incident, did he set up a committee or panel to find out the reason why that place was bombed? Did they report to him that it was an electrical fault? They orchestrated the burning of the Assembly through their cronies because it was said that they were going to remove Edison Ehie as Majority Leader and then impeach the governor.
So they bombed the Assembly so that the Assembly members would not sit. That is the reason Rivers people are not aware, nobody has told them how the Assembly got burnt and if you are demolishing a place for instance, shouldn’t you tell the people who reside there, Please come and take your things? It was all done in bad faith,” he stated.
