The reinstated All Progressives Congress(APC) Chairman of Rivers State, Emeka Beke has said the 26 embattled lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule are members of the party.
This came as there is a running issue on the legitimacy of the lawmakers who had in December 2023 announced their defection to the APC but are in court to renounce the defection.
But Beke insisted that the lawmakers are his members, saying that he would extend an invitation to them during the party’s meetings.
Beke spoke in a press conference shortly after the Rivers State High Court reinstated him, saying the lawmakers can not run away from what they have done.
When asked if the party will continue in its position as a joinder in a suit at the Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt seeking to declare the seats of the lawmakers vacant, Beke insisted that the lawmakers are his members, saying he was in obedience to President Bola Tinubu’s directives of allowing to lawmaker to join the party.
He said: “Let me say it loud and clear to whoever wants to listen, the Martin Amaewhule and others, are members of the APC and we are going to invite them for a meeting of this party when we hold our meeting.
“They can not run away from what they have done, they are members of this party and they remain members of the party.
” The president made it clear that if they want to come to our party we should allow them, we are not going to chase them away from our party, they are members of this party it is left for them to accept and for them to come to our meeting or not but they are members of this party and they are loyal to me as the chairman of the party.”
The reinstated APC Chairman confidently declared that his party will participate in the October 5 local government elections saying they will emerge victorious, boasting of their majority status.
“I can proudly say that this party will drive the state forward,” Beke asserted.
In a sharp rebuke, Beke dismissed ousted Caretaker Committee Chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, as a “drowning man” who doesn’t warrant a response.
He refused to address claims by Okocha of a subsisting court order barring him from functioning as Chairman, saying “I don’t need to respond to him.”
Beke, however, thanked the Judiciary for the judgement, while expressing his determination to lead the APC to triumph in Rivers State.