The embattled Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tony Okocha has accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of disobedience to the rule of law, insisting that the party will not watch the governor allegedly drift the state into lawlessness.
Okocha who made the assertion while speaking with journalists on the planned local government council elections, fixed for October 5, 2024, stressed that the APC will oppose the governor’s alleged impunity to court order.
The APC chieftain alongside his committee members at the briefing held at the party Secretariat on Aba Road, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday, said the party is ready to participate in the election, saying that the alleged atmosphere ahead of the election made them to withdraw participation in the polls.
Stressing that the APC is a law abiding party, Okocha said the members will remain within the ambits of the law, as ordered by Justice Peter Lifu of Federal High Court Judge in Abuja, in his recent judgement barring the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from proceeding with the election.
“We are watching Rivers State drift into a state of lawlessness because of flagrant impunity of one man who is self-seeking. The governor of Rivers State has ruled and continued to rule this state with impunities and we would not stand and watch him drift this state to abysmal oblivion by the reason of trying to push across his personal idiosyncrasies.
“We are a party, APC is a party in government at the centre and we need to let our party, the president, members of the national assembly know our plight. Should we submit to an attempt to obliterate APC in Rivers State? Should we concede to the deliberate by one man to annihilate APC in Rivers State? The answer would be no”.
Okocha wondered how an election where two major political parties, PDP and APC are not participating will be possible, alleging that the governor has already planned the outcome of the polls positioning a lesser Action Peoples Party candidate for chairmanship position across councils in the state.
“We are only saying that we should not encourage the flagrant attempt of one man to throw the party into the dustbin. You can see somebody as desperate as the governor. He has lost touch with his party the PDP. An election that the two major political parties are not participating and we are told that the governor has procured the Action Peoples Party (APP).
“Shouldn’t the governor be sad that a party that threw him up to be governor of Rivers State, the PDP is not in sink with his illegality. He should be concerned about that. Rather he came to RSIEC headquarters and declared himself chairman in an election he wants us to participate.
So we put it that the governor and whatever actions that he is taking are illegal and that we would stand with the law. We would not take the laws into our hands and we would not also allow him to be at the giving end as far as illegality is concerned”.
Okocha told Journalists that he was part of a delegation that visited RSIEC, for the conduct of the LG election but the election empire told them that there was no available logistics to plan the polls, and ” they pleaded with us that whatever we can do to get the system to support the commission, we should do”.
The APC chieftain recalled that “On Monday the judge addressed all the issues and said INEC should not release the voters’ register to RSIEC because the processes are not duly and legally followed and we have said that overtime that we are the ones who at a point were telling the governor and RSIEC to conduct local government elections but they refused and they are infracting the law because the law says clearly that three months to the expiration of the incumbent in the LGAs start the process of election.
“The only time they try to set up a process is after the tenure of the chairmen had elapsed. So under what law is this local government elections going to hold? What is the appropriation? Who appropriated the funds for local government elections to hold?”, Okocha queried.
Speaking also, Chibuike Ikenga CTC publicity Secretary of APC under the leadership of Okocha, alleged that “RSIEC and Rivers State government have penchant in disobeying the court judgement”, saying they is such continuous, it will endanger the integrity of the state and Nigeria at large”.
Ikenga recalled that “on Monday, there was a re-enforcement of the order which was given by a Federal High Court in Abuja under Justice Peter Lifu. The judgement barred the RSIEC from going ahead with the proposed local government elections of 5th October, 2024.
“The same judgement equally restrained the Nigerian Police from providing security, it equally barred the Department of State Security from providing any form of security for the conduct if that said election.
“RSIEC and the Rivers State Government has a penchant for disobedience to court judgements and that is a recipe for crisis because we are not in a banana republic where court judgements and decisions are set aside on grounds of personal interest. There is need for the judiciary to take positive steps to ensuring enforcement and compliance to their rules and judgements”.
Ikenga called on the federal government “as the leader of the three tier of government to intervene to ensure that rule of law is obeyed and ensure that the dictates of individuals, personal interest does not dictate how decisions are taken in Nigeria”.
Blessing Ibunge
