The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has denied the notion that the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martin Amaewhula, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
He explained that what happened on 11th December 2023 at the Polo Club Port Harcourt, widely described as the reception of the defected lawmakers by the APC, was actually an event to celebrate the constitution of a new state executive council of the APC in the state by the national body of the party.
Okocha’s denial came as discussions are increasing on the fate of Hon. Amaewhula and his colleagues, as Nigerians wait with bated breath for the determination of several cases at the Supreme Court on the prolonged political crisis in Rivers State.
Okocha made the denial while speaking to journalists shortly after a meeting of the party’s State Executive Council at the party Secretariat along Aba Road in Port Harcourt. He insisted that he, as then Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC, never received the former lawmakers into the party, saying that what happened at the Port Harcourt Polo Club in December 2023 was not a reception for the 27 lawmakers but an event to celebrate the constitution of a new state executive council of the APC in the state by the national body of the party.
According to Okocha, the lawmakers were invited on an individual basis as a result of the relationship that existed between him and them.
Okocha said: “There was no intention to organise a reception for what we were not holding. We were inaugurated in Abuja and we chose to organise a reception and thanksgiving for our members. It was not to receive the 27 lawmakers.
“We were misinterpreted to have received the 27 lawmakers into APC. That is not correct. We invited individual members of the Assembly. I have a relationship with them over time. We tried to woo them into the party. I was intentional in reaching out to them to join us. We would have counted it all joy if we had succeeded.
“We want to tell Nigerians that the 27 lawmakers led by the Rt. Hon Martins Amaewhule never defected to the All Progressives Congress. What people flaunt on social media or television cannot put up a plausible argument for them. The law is not about emotions. It is as strict as it is.”
Meanwhile, in his characteristic manner, he did not miss the opportunity to accuse the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, of trying to cause anarchy in the state by allegedly continuing to disobey court judgments.
He again accused the governor of running Rivers State without budgets, saying that Gov Fubara has been disobeying the rule of law and expressed fears that such postures usually provoke ugly consequences when aggrieved parties decide to take the law into their own hands.
He feared that expected judgments of the Supreme Court in some crucial matters before it may be rejected and disobeyed by parties from either side now that the precedent seems to have been set.
