The Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Sir Tony Okocha, has alleged a plot to seize control of the party in the state in a bid to frustrate President Bola Tinubu’s re-election efforts in 2027.
The leadership crisis within the APC in Rivers State escalated following recent developments involving the party’s state caretaker committee and judicial ruling.
Okocha’s claim came after the Rivers State High Court, on Monday, August 12, sacked the caretaker committee, and reinstated Emeka Beke as the party’s chairman.
However, the APC National Working Committee (NWC), in a meeting held on Thursday, declared that the Okocha-led Caretaker Committee remains the only recognised leadership of the party in the state.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Okocha criticized the reinstatement of Beke, and accused him of anti-party activities along with Barr. Iheanyichukwu Dike.
Okocha noted that the APC was not joined in the suit leading to the court’s decision, noting that only the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, was listed as a party in the case. He argued that the trial judge’s orders, which involved parties not joined in the suit, were legally flawed.
Okocha further described Beke as a product of political imposition by the former APC leader in the state, Rotimi Amaechi, whom he accused of wanting a “stooge” to lead the party.
Quoting him, “Beke was imposed on the APC in Rivers state. I was a member, an ally of Senator Magnus Abe when he was fighting right inside the APC. The reason why we fought was ineptitude, political high-handedness and imposition. Beke was a product of these three issues but was imposed by the then APC leader, Rotimi Amaechi.
“The truth of the matter is that the party has a lot intellectuals, professionals and lecturers. We imagine how a person of lowly academic qualifications can preside over a meeting that some of us would attend but the APC leader then said they wanted somebody who had street boy mentality. But the truth was that he wanted a surrogate, a stooge who would do his bidding. We fought but the APC leader was then a minister and his vestiges were here as leaders of the party.
“At the presidential primaries of the APC, Beke was the person who led the Rivers delegation of 56 delegates to vote for Rotimi Amaechi. That was how they scored 56 from the state.”
Okocha further alleged a plan to reestablish Amaechi as the APC leader in Rivers State to oppose President Tinubu in the 2027 elections. He condemned Beke for aligning with Amaechi, whom he accused of working against the party’s interests during the last presidential election.
While highlighting the b implications of the court’s decision, Okocha stated that the APC in Rivers State would not revert to its previous “social club” status.
“There is an intention to throw up Amaechi’s man and then he (Amaechi) becomes the APC leader and then use the APC to fight Mr President in 2027. We will never allow that.
“Beke has shot himself in the leg by also referring to Amaechi as leader of the party in Rivers and the South South. A man who refused to cooperate with President Tinubu then as presidential candidate, a man who worked for the opposition. Amaechi and his group aligned with PDP’s Atiku while Wike and his group from the PDP worked with us. After we won the election, Amaechi addressed the Press that Tinubu nominated the INEC Chairman and that the INEC Chairman worked with the current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike when he was at TETFUND and Wike was Education minister. That person cannot be leader of the APC.
“He is the same person who warned our secretary to never invite him for any APC meeting. APC Rivers will never go back to the social club status that it used to be,” he stated.
He reiterated the party’s commitment to upholding the law, saying they had already applied to the Court of Appeal for a stay of execution and an invalidation of the judgment and expressed confidence in their legal battle.
“We will use the law, and we are ready to go the whole hog to the Supreme Court,” he said, recalling a previous Supreme Court ruling barring courts from interfering in the internal affairs of political parties.
“As far as we are concerned, this is the court of first instance and we had known the end from the beginning. If we had known the end from the beginning, why should we be perturbed by that court judgment. We knew and that was why we went ahead with our programmes, the solidarity rally for Mr President.
“We are in court. We are law abiding. At our level, even when a judgment is gotten from the toilet, we will abide by it. But we have applied to the court of appeal for a stay of execution and an invalidation of that judgment. We are not fighting fisticuffs. We will use the law and we are ready to go the whole hug to the supreme court.
“The Supreme Court had ruled before that the courts should not meddle in the internal affairs of the party. The task of picking a party chairman is an internal affair of the party,” he added.