National protocol director of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Tony Okocha, has alleged that former minister of transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, voted for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the just- concluded Presidential and National Assembly election.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, Okocha declared that Amaechi, who is former Rivers State Governor, is no longer leader of APC in the state.
He said he had mobilised and galvanized support in the state for the APC candidate, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, now president-elect and that the party won fair and square in Rivers State with the huge support it received for Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
The APC chieftain stated that the action of Amaechi was the height of anti-party, saying he was now the leader of the APC in Rivers, saying the former governor had long abandoned the party.
Okocha said, “It is clear cut and certain that our former leader, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi became the leader of the party on grounds of him being a serving Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“A day to the presidential election, he ordered his supporters to go and vote for the presidential candidate of the PDP.
“We have it on record that he voted for the candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
“That naturally disqualifies him as leader and that I, Chief Tony Okocha, who won election with my own faction for our presidential candidate is now the leader of APC in Rivers State.”
Asked if the development will not deepen the crisis within the party, the APC chieftain said there was no crisis, but said some outsiders were making incursions into the party
But in a swift reaction, the state publicity secretary of the APC, Darlingron Nwauju, said Okocha was no longer a member of the party.
Nwauju asked, Is Tony Okocha an APC member? He is merely a member of an independent campaign outfit for Tinubu but not an APC member.
“Please ask him to mention the names of just five of the 27 Exco members of APC in his ward. Tony is a confli-preneur and has a history of transactional politics.
“Are you not aware that the campaign outfit which he belongs to here in Rivers State is torn apart because of money allegedly donated to them by the Governor of Rivers State? “Has he been able to account for all the monies passed through him? Even the PCC/ICC he belongs to is in disagreement with him.
“And he has not been able to assert himself on them. Please, remind Tony Okocha that when the pillars of APC in Nigeria will sit down to talk, he won’t be there.”