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… Urges G-5 Governors to Support Tinubu
By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and member of the party’s Presidential Campaign Council, PCC in Rivers State, Sir Tony Okocha, has condemned the party’s governorship and National Assembly candidates for leaving out the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in their campaigns.
This was as he has called on the G5 governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), popularly as the ‘Integrity Group’, to support the presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
Okocha called out the Rivers APC and its governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, during a press briefing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
He condemned Cole, who he described as the coordinator of the APC Presidential Candidate Council, for clearly avoiding to mention Tinubu in all his campaign engagements in Rivers State and challenged him to show evidence of campaigning for the party’s presidential candidate.
He charged; “Our governorship candidate in all his engagements has not found it convenient to mention, communicate, or canvass support for his party’s presidential candidate, howbeit, in passing.
“By way of joining issues with us here, we challenge the governorship candidate who is the coordinator of the Presidential Champaign Council PCC to show banner, poster or billboard where he shares with the presidential candidate.
“We challenge the candidate before the press to show which media outfit he has sponsored jingles, or publications howsoever, for the presidential candidate of the party, rather, our observation and keen followership of the campaign sponsored by the APC Rivers and governorship candidate of the party had shown that the duo are careful not to mention our presidential candidate so as not to be dash-brushed by certain infinitesimal anti-Tinubu/Shettima forces who they believe will vote for them in the election of March 2023,” he said.
He did not spare the National Assembly candidates either but also threw same challenge at them. “We challenge again, the National Assembly candidates of the APC Rivers whose election are the same 25 February 2023 with that of the president to show poster, billboard, jingles etc where they share with the presidential candidate of our party,” Okocha stated.
He regretted that members of the APC Rivers State were still dwelling on the events that led to the presidential primaries, adding; “One would have thought that after the presidential primaries that threw up the presidential candidate of our party that those who hitherto were averse to the candidate’s aspiration would have struggled to come out of what her Excellency, Aisha Buhari referred to as ‘trauma of defeat syndrome’ and worked conscientiously for the party’s victory. Unfortunately, the bile, the anger, the hurt and the hatred that greeted the moment before the election are still very palpable.”
He explained that his support for Tinubu was in order to enable the former governor “replicate the transformation he carried out in Lagos, just like he did in Lagos,” which he described as a dungeon before 1999.
Okocha, who was former chief of staff to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, said that since the APC in the state has been enmeshed in several dispute, the national body of the party should make the upcoming presidential campaign a whole day event in order to settle the dispute in the state.
“We request that the leadership of APC and PCC in Rivers State should vigorously campaign for Asiwaju/Tinubu or leave the scene for those who are willingly ready to do so.
“The leadership of APC and PCC in Rivers State should not discriminate against those who are ready and willing to work for Asiwaju/Shettima presidency whether they are full-fledged members of the party or not”, Okocha said.
He boasted; “We will work for Asiwaju/Shettima presidency and we will win Rivers State overwhelmingly and not just deliver the 25 percent required votes.
“We call on the G5 governors and other willing Nigerians to swing their support for Asiwaju/Shettima, to cruise into the presidential villa to enable him (Tinubu) replicate in Nigeria the same transformation in Lagos which was a dungeon before 1999.”
Also speaking, the coordinator of Tinubu/Shettima Independent Campaign Council in Rivers State, Sir Augustine Wokocha, said the campaign council alone will provide over 3 million voters for APC at the presidential election.
Wokocha said: “Already we have 51 registered support groups who will campaign and support the Tinubu/Shettima presidency. We will soon constitute a 224,000 unit representatives across the various units because we believe that Nigeria will be better under Tinubu.”