By Akinwale Kasali
Former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is not in the good books of a faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the State and it seems the same at the national level. This follows allegations that he worked against the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25th Presidential Election.
But, this has been debunked by Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a Chieftain of the Party in the State. Eza stated that Amaechi could not have ordered members and supporters of the party in the State to vote against President Tinubu, during the 2023 Presidential election.
It will be recalled that Amaechi contested against President Tinubu in the APC Presidential Primary in Abuja, but he lost to the former Lagos State Governor.
He was second in the Primary won by Tinubu.
Eze, while reacting to a statement credited to a factional leader of the APC in the State, Tony Okocha, accused him of carrying out of smear campaign against Amaechi.
Okocha, who led a delegation to the APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje alleged that prior to the election, Amaechi called a meeting where he informed them that he had struck a deal with the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and directed them to vote the PDP against the Party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu.
However, in a media statement on Friday, Eze said the claim peddled by Okocha was fictitious and a cocktail of lies consciously schemed against Amaechi by adversaries who see such engagement as necessary to please their pay masters.
He said that Okocha was never a member of the APC during the period leading to the election and had no insight into the workings.
Further, the APC chief commended the party’s National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, for disappointing the people he described as Wike’s conflict mercenaries, Okocha and company, who had gone to meet him.
Eze said the meeting was to seek Ganduje’s approval to proceed with their onslaught through campaigns of calumny against Amaechi and the mainstream APC State Executive in Rivers.
“Okocha and his team were disappointed when Abdullahi Ganduje cautioned them not to over-heat the polity and allow the leadership of the party at the centre work out modalities to calm frayed nerves and resolve every issue affecting the party in the state before delving into constituting another party structure in the state,” he said.
He reiterated that Wike, Okocha, or any member in their circle cannot remove Amaechi from APC, as he remains a founding member of the Party.
