It Is Time For Wike To Join APC – Rivers State Chairman Okocha

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The All Progressive Congress, APC, has called on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to consider making the final switch to the party.

At an interactive session with the Media in Port Harcourt on Tuesday September 2, 2025, the Chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the APC, Chief Tony Okocha, said the time is now ripe for Wike to join the party officially.

The Source reports that the former Governor of Rivers state has, since 2023, been hobnobbing with the APC, while at the same staking  his membership of the Peoples Democratic party, PDP.

Pre-2023 general elections, the FCT Minister, together with four other PDP Governors, joined forces with the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ,who was the APC candidate, against their own party’s candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

He was, thereafter, compensated with the FCT Ministerial slot by President Tinubu.

Using the instrumentality of the FCT Ministerial position, Wike has in the past two years, been  worked tirelessly to undermine his party, the PDP, with the intention to render it impotent enough not to pose any threat to the second term ambition of  his acclaimed new political benefactor, President Tinubu.

Having successfully executed his latest assignment of  pushing out the PDP from the political equation of Rivers state, through the enthronement of the APC as winner of the much condemned August 30 ,2025 local council election, speculations are rife that the former Governor is now ready to formally defect to the ruling party at the centre.

Chief Okocha informed that the APC in the State is also wooing other prominent members of the PDP to join the party, alongside the FCT Minister.

According to him, the State law makers who Wike have been using in the last two years to rein in Governor Similanayi Fubara, are also prime targets for a possible defection to the APC in the days ahead.

Chief Okocha noted that already, there have been a flurry of quiet  defections of some prominent PDP members to the APC ,in the last few weeks.

The APC Chairman  explained that most of the APC candidates that emerged victorious during the just concluded local Council Polls in the State ,were actually decampees from the PDP.

However, he noted that owing to some strategic reasons, the development had remained a secret before now.

“Those former PDP members who contested as candidates of the APC  during the Local Government election actually defected to the APC. We decided not to make it public”, Okocha stated.

This is as he insisted that the APC deliberately refused to field  candidates in three local councils of Obio/Akpor, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni ,and Port Harcourt City during the  council polls.

Instructively, the three councils fall within the area under the  immediate territorial control of Wike in Rivers state politics.

“We didn’t field candidates for Port Harcourt City , Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni ,and Obio Akpor LGAs because we know we won’t win in those areas”, Okocha noted.

The party expressed deep appreciation to President Tinubu and the National leadership of the APC for repositioning the party and returning it to winning ways in Rivers state.

He expressed the  optimism that the fortunes of the APC will be greatly enhanced  with the formal entry of the FCT Minister and his loyalists.