The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has warned that the response of the National Working Committee (NWC) to the sacking of Tony Okocha by a High Court was a direct invitation to anarchy in the State.
Recall that Rivers State High Court on Monday sacked the caretaker committee of the APC led by Okocha and reinstated Emeka Beke and his executive as the duly elected Exco of the party.
However, the national leadership of the party on Thursday directed Okocha to immediately commence the processes of Congress from the ward to the state levels in October.
Reacting to the directive, the party in Rivers State warned that the NWC is constituting a great cog in the wheel of progress in the party.
The party insisted that the danger signal is incalculable and has the potency to scare away investors as no business or investment can thrive in an atmosphere bereft of the rule of law.
Speaking via a statement on Friday by the state’s spokesman of the party, Darlington Nwauju, the party argued that no individual or group of individuals has the right under the law to act, serve or represent the APC Rivers State chapter without the express approval of the validly Elected Executives of the party under Emeka Beke
The statement read in part, “We must say without equivocation that the activities of the current NWC are constituting a great cog in the wheel of progress for our great party and communicate a rather taciturn posture to party cohesion while debasing pluralism of thoughts and encouraging dissent.
“Nigerians are invited to peruse the entire forty-eight (48) page judgment delivered by Justice S.H. Aprioku in Suit No. PHC/CS/3592/2023. For the sake of emphasis, the suit in question was instituted on behalf of aggrieved members of the State Executive Committee by the Secretary of the Rivers State chapter of the APC and not the Chairman.
“We are aware of Suit No. PHC/CS/925/2023 which was handled by Justice D.S. Kio of the Rivers State High Court and the decision of that Court (which was a vacation court) to ‘suspend’ two officers of our party via an Ex-parte Order and that this has since elapsed with the effluxion of time (14 days), unless, we are now saying that an Ex-parte Order can be mummified like the Egyptian Pharaohs and preserved as part of our own political tourist attraction!
“It is quite amazing that in the past few days, Nigerians have been freely served with dishes full of inconsistent stories by the major beneficiary of the illegality foisted on the party in Rivers State, one Tony Okocha, who in one breath on national television, referred to the ruling delivered by Honourable Justice S.H. Aprioku as “procured” judgement but in another breath “wags his tail”
“over the rulings delivered by Justice D.S. Kio of the Rivers State High Court (April 2023) and P.O. Lifu of the FHC Abuja (August 2024); both judges entertained matters sitting as vacation judges and the ousted illegal Caretaker Committee Chairman has not come out to tell Nigerians why these judges sat as vacation judges and delivered rulings which serves his desperate political agenda of balkanizing the APC in Rivers State and poisoning it with the PDAPC “cancerous” virus.
“We condemn this obvious national embarrassment on our party and plead with members of our NWC to guide themselves properly by getting very neutral interpretation of and digesting the judgment of August 12 2024, as this is the only existing judgment anywhere in Nigeria.”