Emergency Rule: Okocha Welcomes SOLAD To Rivers

Edith CHUKU

Factional Chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC, in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, has described the state sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas as a square peg.

Okocha gave this description while welcoming Ibas and declaring his party’s support and determination to work with him towards the realization of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intention.

He also commended Tinubu for the declaration of the state of emergency in the state, insisting it was timeous, to hinder the supposed drumbeat of war and ethnicisation.

The factional APC chair stated this while briefing newsmen on Thursday, shortly after Ibas arrived Government House, Port Harcourt.

According to Okocha, the decision for a state of emergency in the state was rather painful, but critically examining the evolving scenarios, we can’t but welcome the timeous decision.

In his words to Tinubu, he said, “on behalf of the teeming membership of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Rivers State, l write to express our Painful Satisfaction on the declaration of State of Emergency in Rivers State. It was clearly the best of all possible decisions to checkmate the brewing circumstances of economic sabotage and general anomie that were trickling and bedeviling the peace in Rivers State.

“I recall that in your very tight schedules, you took out time to meet with critical Stakeholders in Rivers State, in the most serene environment in the State House, Abuja. That meeting was advisory and produced 8-Points Resolution as backup, which was read before the full glare of attendees by former governor, Peter Odili.

“I recall also that after every paragraph was read, you paused to ask if it was acceptable to all, and everyone responded bellowing a thunderous, affirmation. Thereafter, we signed the 8-Points Resolution on your table, beginning with HE governor Fubara as he then was.

“In his speech before Your Excellency and attendees, the then governor swore to follow through the 8-points resolution which were intended to bring relative peace in Rivers State. Alas, we returned to a thespian drama where some elders who should have drummed for peace latching on the veritable ground provided by the meeting in the State House.

“Instead, they counseled the governor never to accept your wise counsel as you lacked the powers under the constitution to so intervene. Worse still, they went to court to seek a declaration that Mr. President’s decision was Political, not Constitutional. In all this route, the Governor was the mastermind and financier.”

Okocha noted that, “as a Party, we took out airtimes in both traditional and new media to urge the Governor and his hatchet men to refrain from the ceaseless obnoxious attacks on Mr. President, whose only offense was the intention to return peace and tranquility in Rivers State.

“We failed because of the deep-seated penchant of governor Fubara, whose deliberate intention was to show off Mr. President as weak and inconsequential.”

He accused Fubara of disregarding and disrespecting the rule of law “and carried on with impunity under the guise of immunity clause section 308.

“He chose the orders of the court/judicial pronouncements to obey. He disregarded all these and publicly boasted that he holds the ace, and would decide the faith of 27 Assembly members who in his thoughts, are appendages to the executive arm and under the hard nose of his whims and caprices.

“Again as a political party, the APC craved for the setting up of an inquiry to uncover the reason(s) behind the gory circumstance in whatsoever nomenclature. The governor rebuffed and blatantly refused.

“Your Excellency, we saw the zest in you to have the self~inflicted Rivers State political imbroglio resolved. For the second time, during the visit with you by the PANDEF, you alluded to the Rivers State case and urged the leaders to help in the realization and implementation of the Rule of Law and specifically the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court on the 28th of February, 2025.

“Despite the Presidential counsel, Rivers State became a beehive of activities for non~state actors who boasted openly to bomb pipelines and strangulate the Nation’s economy and engage in lawlessness should governor Fubara be impeached. We thought that it was an empty threat. They made good their boast by bombing and destroying crucial pipelines in Rivers State.
Kidnapping, robbery and blocking of major highways returned in droves.

“Governor Fubara did absolutely nothing to restore normalcy to a now fledgling State that he governed.”

Okocha, though described the emergency rule as peaceful but noted that they were satisfied with it to reduce what he described as drumbeat of war in the state.

“We congratulate Mr. President for the declaration of State of Emergency in Rivers State. It is utilitarian to the extent that it brought succour and happiness to the greatest amount of Rivers people.”