Amaechi Didn’t Instruct Rivers APC To Vote Against Tinubu — Chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, said that former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi did not ordered members and supporters of the party in the state to vote against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during the 2023 presidential election.

Eze while reacting to a statement credited to a factional leader of the APC in the state, Tony Okocha, who he accused of politics of smear campaign.

Okocha while leading a delegation to the APC National Chairman, 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, Atiku Abubakar, and directed them to vote the PDP against the party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu.

However, in a statement made available to the media 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 paymasters.

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 heat the polity and allow the leadership of the party at the central 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 of their circle cannot remove Amaechi from APC.

• Yusuf Oketola