War of words have continued to dominate the crisis in the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress or APC with the former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party or PDP, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, on Sunday replying to the ousted chairman of the Rivers APC caretaker committee, Tony Okocha that president Bola Tinubu already knows why he would lose the 2027 election.
Tinubu is into his second year of first term and is constitutionally allowed a second term of four years.
But the poor state of the economy which has created untold hardship, unemployment, worsening state of insecurity, attacks on free press where journalists are hounded and abducted and held in solitary confinement for months have dominated early themes by opponents and some members of the APC who are saying the president stands a good change to lose the next election if he seeks reelection.
And no less than Rivers State where decampees from the PDP to the APC are pushing a different narrative in favour of the president with accusations that they are making meaningful living out of rallying support for the president despite more than two more years to the election.
This has pitted the founding APC members in Rivers State against the decampees who see FCT minister, Nyesom Wike as their leader as against those who see former Transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi as the South-South leader of the APC.
And in Tony Okocha, President Tinubu and Wike have found an ally who is not only fighting to sell them but is also struggling to seize the machinery of the APC to emerge the state chairman.
Although the court recently ousted him, Okocha has continued to act as the caretaker chairman and has mobilised members and sympathisers of the APC in Rivers State to stage rallies in support of the president and Wike, who was governor under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party for eight years.
Wike was also minister of state for education and local government chairman while he was in the PDP.
Although he has stated several times he remains in the PDP, and is fighting in court to stop the party from confirming his expulsion, he is increasingly working to seize the APC structure in Rivers just like he is bidding to do the same in the PDP.
As Amaechi’s influence continues to loom large, Okocha has spared no time attacking the former governor of the state and stated recently that, “There is an intention to throw up Amaechi’s man and then he (Amaechi) becomes the APC leader and then uses the party to fight Mr President in 2027.”
That assertion did not sit down well with Chukwuemeka Eze who is also a Chieftain of the APC, forcing him to caution Okocha to refrain from using Amaechi to cash out from his paymasters and their allies who feel threatened at the mere mention of the name.
He said his paymasters and their allies have been working surreptitiously to make Amaechi a subject to lampoon through smear campaigns and defamatory insinuations.
Eze reminded Okocha that “the cascade of administrative ineptitude, policy somersaults and multi-layer corruption that has fanned the embers of hyper-unemployment, insecurity, food price hike and more form a veritable mountain of weapons with which Nigerians are armed to fight and oust Tinubu from office in 2027.”
He said “it is even foolish for a mere mortal like Okocha to be talking about 2027, three years away from today, when no one is sure of the next minute of his life; like the Bible said in James 4:14 ….”
Eze while urging Okocha and his irks to consult Tinubu and those who formed APC to ascertain who truly is the Leader of APC in Rivers and South South, he noted that at the formation of APC, Tinubu was made the National Leader of APC, while Amaechi emerged South South leader and despite the Buhari’s entrance as President, Tinubu clinked to his position as national leader.
He admonished Okocha and those allegedly sponsoring him to “be concerned about the fact that the country once known as Africa’s giant has collapsed in all facets under the nose of Tinubu, and channel energy towards fashioning out solutions, if they have any, to the gamut of problems they have created impeding Nigeria’s progress.”
Eze accused Okocha of mobilising a paid-protest in support of Tinubu which gulped over fifty million Naira without any effect, after his ouster by the court in order to remain in the good book of his paymasters and continually curry their cheers.