The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has denied inviting former governor Nyesom Wike to join the party, describing those credited with inviting Wike to takeover APC Rivers as imposters.
Darlington Nwauju, a spokesman for Rivers APC, in a statement, distanced the party’s leadership from the said invitation. According to Nwauju, Rivers APC never invited Wike, who characterized APC as suffering from cancer, to join the party.
He said, “We unequivocally dismiss any such rumor or sponsored story that Rivers APC had at any forum invited Wike to join our party, none the least calling on Wike to take over the leadership of a party he never campaigned for. We dare anyone to provide evidence of any campaigns where Wike openly campaigned for the APC.
“The terror unleashed on our party members in the cause of his eight years of maximum rulership alone is enough evidence to confirm that Wike has no business with Rivers APC. Asking him to come and take over is asking an enemy to come and finish off his victims.
“We are aware of his schemes to escape justice over the looting of the collective patrimony of Rivers people, which is the major reason for his romancing top APC members. For those suffering from amnesia, a non-APC member cannot be a cheerleader for the entry of Wike into the APC.
“Nobody can decree his membership of a political party through radio or newspaper publications. All vexatious attempts at distracting our party in Rivers State will keep failing.
“APC Rivers has a legally recognized state office where all official businesses are conducted. We have a standard procedure for convening our meetings according to our party’s constitution. A village meeting or gathering cannot equate to a stakeholder’s meeting of APC in Rivers.
“We, therefore, disassociate the leadership of our party from any so-called stakeholders meeting suggesting that our party be handed over to Mr. Wike.
“We warn blackmailers to desist from the shameless tradition of using the name of our party to curry favor from desperate politicians seeking relevance at the center.”
Recall that a chieftain of the APC and former Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, Chief Tony Okocha, stated that the immediate past governor of the state deserves to reap what he sowed in making President Bola Tinubu victorious in the 2023 presidential election.
Okocha stated this at a news briefing in Port Harcourt, while also declaring the party’s readiness to receive Wike if he decides to defect, emphasizing that the role Wike played in the emergence of Tinubu as Nigeria’s incumbent President cannot be overemphasized.
Okocha, who was the Coordinator of the BAT-Vanguard, an acronym for the disbanded Bola Ahmed Tinubu Vanguard in the South-South, said Wike has the right to join any party.
Okocha stated, “We are noticing that some persons who abandoned Tinubu when Tinubu needed them most and voyaged outside the shores are now relying on their personal relationships one way or the other to begin to make some sense of entitlement.
“That they are entitled to whatever. In the leadership of the Tinubu family in Rivers State, we are at peace 100 per cent with His Excellency, Barr Nyesom Wike, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, as our leader.
“He who pays the piper dictates the tune. When it was difficult, even when the national body could not oblige us with funds for the national rally here, the magic was done by somebody.”
