The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has fired back at suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, declaring that his political misdeeds cannot be washed away simply by defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
Rivers APC Chairman, Sir Tony Okocha, made this assertion on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing reporters on the implications of Fubara’s recent Sallah visit to President Bola Tinubu.
According to Okocha, the governor’s troubles—including his suspension and the declaration of a state of emergency—stem from his own misconduct, not political vendetta.
He stated, “If Fubara decides to join the APC, it has nothing to do with the state of emergency in Rivers State. His sins cannot be forgiven because he came to our party.
You will jump into APC today and your sins are forgiven? That cannot be true. It won’t work that way. Then, it would have made APC as a dumping ground for people who commit misdemeanor and believe that by and large we will come for reconciliation. No. It is not true. He has not spoken to me. He will enter the party through the door not the window. Not only him, there are procedures for defection to another party and if he claims to be a politician, he would know that all politics is local, he would try and defect in his ward. From there it will come to us and my ward chairmen. I have asked, nobody brought any information about him entering APC.”
When asked whether the governor’s meeting with the president concerned the party, Okocha shrugged off any suggestion of alarm.
“How can I be worried that somebody visited my president? Don’t forget it was also the season of Sallah. Yesterday, I read somewhere that the former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Osoba paid Sallah homage and I don’t know whether you also saw the President in the company of Chief EN Wike. So we cannot be worried, we cannot gag the President to say you will see Mr A, you will not see Mr B. Perhaps, if I had made an application to see Mr President, I would have been there with my team,” he said.
Okocha further dismissed any claims of reconciliation efforts from Fubara’s camp.
“I am not a prophet of doom. I can only say to you with the benefit of knowledge that I am not aware of any reconciliatory move. No reconciliation is going on, is it going to talk to Mr President? But Mr President has said go and make peace. No attempt at that. I am not aware of any reconciliatory moves by Fubara and his team.”
