Erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party, nPDP, Chukwuemeka Eze in response to Tony Okocha’s assertion that the 27 troubled Rivers lawmakers never defected to the All Progressives Congress, Eze has responded.
In an interview conducted recently in Abuja, Okocha stated that he was attempting to entice the MPs to join his organization.
Tony, who was recently removed by the court from his role as the chairman of the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) Rivers State Caretaker committee, claimed that the 27 lawmakers were at odds with Fubara at the moment.
Okocha had stated, “I need to make this clear to everyone. Much as I want to have them in my fold, none of them has agreed to join us. I am the one that should know if they did. But clearly, they have not. …what the lawmakers did was a political gimmick. I tried to woo them, but they kept vacillating and did not.”
In response, Eze stated that the public is not shocked that Okocha could publicly display lies to the contrary, even if there is a wealth of evidence in the media that clearly supports the lawmakers’ evident desertion from the PDP to the APC.
Eze, a Rivers State APC chieftain, told the media in a statement that Okocha was also present at the official defection, which was reported by prominent media outlets, but he blamed the desertion on a political ploy to gain support “the former lawmakers escape the consequence of their action goes to show the depth of horrible damage that has been done to the fabrics of Nigeria by politics and the band of cheating players of the game. Morals have indeed gone to the dogs,” he said.
“It was the same Tony Okocha who also boasted in a public glare how he used to manipulate elections, write election results and hand them over to electoral officials for announcement.
“To this day, this man suffering from moral bankruptcy is walking freely in the streets of Port Harcourt.
“A few weeks back, a competent court of jurisdiction asked Okocha and his circle never to parade themselves as caretaker committee chairman and members for the Rivers APC, yet they keep issuing press statements on the party’s letterhead. That is the level at which impunity now operates in our polity. No respect for laws.
Eze specifically denounced Okocha and Chibuike Ikenga for providing interviews and releasing press releases using the Rivers APC banner without permission, respectively.
“It is morally corrupt and pricks the human conscience to hear Chibuike Ikenga, an ousted Spokesperson to the Kangaroo Rivers APC caretaker committee to still speak from his ousted position to ask Governor Fubara to abide by the court judgement and reconcile with Wike or face embarrassment.
“One wonders where Chibuike Ikenga and his likes muscle the courage with which they display these levels of defects in their character. The court dethroned somebody from his former illegal position yet the person still lays claim over the office to and summon the courage to advise another on court verdicts.
“Tony Okocha, on his part addressed the press in Abuja last week where he claimed he is still chairman, caretaker committee of the Rivers APC and that the 27 former Lawmakers who defected from PDP to APC at the glare of the world never did so and that Wike is still a member of the PDP.
“With the level of moral decadence in display particularly on the Rivers Political playground, the likes of Wike, Okocha, Ikenga, the 27 peo-Wike former Lawmakers and their irks would have been banned from holding public office if the Nigerian Society were a sane one.
“Nigeria cannot make any progress in terms of respect for laws when people disobey laws and court verdict with impunity and walk away with it because they are close to power or hold public office. Okocha, Ikenga and their group would have been cooling off in a correctional facility by now if we were a serious country.
“What society condones the insolence and blatant disregard for law and court verdicts as we see in Nigeria especially from the Wike group.“
