- Factional APC Leader: Candidates Of APC Not Known To Our Party
The desire of the suspended governor of Rivers State, Sim Fubara to return to avoid any further altercation with his estranged godfather and minister of the FCT, Dr Nyesom Wike may have made him to shut his eyes as Wike stylishly moves to take control of all political structures in the state.
With Fubara now literally under the bus, Wike is seamlessly taking control of the leadership of the PDP and the APC. For the first time in the history of the state, two leading political leaders are fielding joint candidates for the controversial local government election scheduled to hold on August 30.
Interestingly, there are a plethora of court cases against the election, following the decision of the current members of the state election commission to give only 21 days notice before the election, against what the law allows.
Already, all of Fubara’s loyalists in the various Simplified related organisations have become deaf and dumb, after Fubara announced that nobody should take Panadol for his headache.
Ahead of the August 30 election, not one candidate for the election is loyal to Fubara. They are either former chairmen of the local governments or politicians whose loyalty is to Wike.
As it is, the body language from Fubara is that the only thing that is important to him is his return to office. He does not seem to be interested in anything that will scuttle or delay this, including resisting whatever Wike wants.
Darlington Nwauju, spokesman of a faction of the APC declared by a high court in the state, has however said that those who emerged as candidates for the election were not members of the APC.
He has also said that the seeming political marriage between the APC and the PDP in the state was the handiwork of Wike. The APC national secretariat, however, recognizes Tony Okocha as its chairman in the state.
“There is no marriage between APC and PDP. What you are referring to is the handiwork of the FCT Minister who planted a mole, Tony Okocha, within the APC in order to cause confusion. Those claiming to be members of our party are not members, because Article 8 of our party constitution spells out the procedures for membership. And none of these individuals have met any of these criteria.
“All those purporting to have emerged in(sic) the primaries conducted by Okocha are not APC members. Even Okocha himself did not revalidate his membership after he left for the SDP. That statement signed by Felix Morka(APC national publicity secretary)amounts to professional misconduct as a lawyer who should know that he has no business disparaging/disrespecting or discountenancing the decisions of court.
“I have personally sent Mr Morka my response to his most unfortunate statement. Morka is not the owner of the APC and cannot personalize our party. As at today, there is a subsisting order of court recognizing the Emeka Beke leadership and that is the position.”
When asked if the Beke faction was fielding candidates for the election, he said “political parties are set up as vehicles to get to power. I want to believe the RISEC does the right things, so that the state executive committee of the party which by the way under the constitution of our party is vested with the powers to nominate candidates for LG elections, will do the needful. But, RISEC must first get it right by interacting with the legally recognized leadership of all political parties.”
In the course of the online interview, Nwauju was asked to speak on Fubara’s ongoing travails. His response: “I am not sympathetic to anybody’s travails. I am sympathetic to the development of Rivers State because it doesn’t belong to any individual and I have a right per time as a stakeholder to ensure my voice is heard when there is any issue attempting to grind the state to a halt. I owe nobody apologies.
“As per hijacking APC and PDP by the FCT Minister, every political watcher understands the kind of disruptive politics he tries to play but it cannot always go his way.”
Meanwhile, the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria, IPAC, has notified RISIEC of their unwillingness to be part of the August 30 election. In the letter jointly signed by Dr. Yusuf Dantalle, national chairman and Maxwell Mgbudem, National Secretary of the party, the body of all registered political parties in the country said they could not take part in a questionable election.
“It is in pursuit of these shared objective of IPAC that we write to you concerning the
illegality and unconstitutionality of the proposed Rivers State Council (Local Government
Area and Councillorship) Elections scheduled to hold on the 30th of August, 2025.
We wish to state most emphatically that the process of conducting the Rivers State Council
Elections during this period of emergency rule in the State is to make caricature of Nigeria’sconstitutional democracy and its institutions.
“It is a common knowledge that President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on 18th March, 2025, while proclaiming a state of emergency in Rivers State accentuated amongst others issues bordering on security and constitutional breaches and suspended all democratically elected institutions in the State allowing only the judiciary as the only democratic institution to function.
“There is no gain-saying that the State of emergency was basically declared to contain the persistent political crises and restore peace and order in Rivers State, which is the paramount responsibility of the Sole Administrator and not go ahead with conducting democratic elections, which in itself could brew further political crises.
“We herein unequivocally express our utmost dismay and concern on your resolve to continue on the part of illegal and unconstitutional exercise with total disregard tIt is imperative to note that your Commission as presently constituted lacks the legitimate authority to conduct any election in Rivers State as the only constitutionally recognized authority to appoint members of the State Electoral Commission is the Governor and confirmed by the State House of Assembly all being democratically elected institutions.
“It is on the strength of the above and many more unconstitutional and illegal steps taken by the Sole Administrator that IPAC as body geared towards entrenching deep rooted democratic norms in our society do vehemently condemn in its entirety the illegal process of conducting Council Elections in Rivers State without at first lifting and restoring democratic institutions in the State. The Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC) arising from its General Assembly meeting strongly wish to state most unambiguously that we dissociate ourselves from this illegitimate exercise, which threatens our democratic norms and rule of law. On this note, IPAC hereby directs all lovers of democracy in Rivers State especially all political parties to desist from participating in the Rivers State Council election slated to hold on 30th August, 2025.”
