A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has declared that former minister of transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, did not vote for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded presidential election in Rivers State.
He said Amaechi, who is also former Rivers State governor, could not have voted for any candidate outside those running on the APC platform.
Eze, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt yesterday, described the claims by another APC chieftain that the former minister did not vote for the party’s candidate and president-elect, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, as “unfounded, fallacious and malicious.”
The APC chieftain said, “Tony Okocha had long left the APC after a failed ploy by saboteurs to infiltrate and trigger fresh crisis in the party through him. It amounts to mere fallacy for the same man to turn around and claim membership of APC when his name is missing on the register of members of the progressives family in Rivers State.
“It is embarrassing to the APC for an intermeddler to begin to lay claim to certain things that are within the exclusive preserve of members of the party and called on the national leadership to respect the sacrifices of those who pioneered the party in the state and even at the centre and disregard any power play that will crumble the party in Rivers State, in the interest of progress.
“Tony Okocha’s inclusion into the APC presidential campaign council came through the recommendation of Senator Magnus Abe, a member of SDP, and not the APC as the former chief of staff has no business in the Rivers APC and could not have been so recommended having carried himself as an anti-progressive jobber.”
Eze called on those within the circle of Tinubu to limit their dealings with Okocha to the personal relationship they enjoy and not to extend it to the affairs and concerns of the APC in Rivers State, saying such endeavour will mean bringing the APC chieftain into the party through the backdoor.
He said the former minister is a committed progressive and could not have abandoned the presidential candidate of a party in which he has invested so much to declare support for another candidate on the eve of election.
