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Interview with Isaac Obogbula, chairman of the Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee.
Introduction:
There is a raging controversy over the leadership of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2018 with many members of the party in the state insisting there are factional leaderships, one loyal to the Minister of Transportation and immediate past governor of the state, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, and the other loyal to Sen. Magnus Abe who represented the Rivers South East Senatorial District.
But in this interview with our correspondent, Isaac Abbot Obogbula, chairman of Rivers APC Caretaker Committee states that there’s no doubt that his committee is in control of the APC in Rivers State, excerpts:
Q: Please introduce yourself.
A: My name is Isaac Abbot Obogbula, I am the Rivers State Chapter Caretaker Committee chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Q: A brief history of your emergence as the chairman of the Caretaker Committee?
A: On the 6th of September 2019, the National Secretariat of the APC announced myself and four other members of the party in the state as the members of the Caretaker Committee in Rivers State and on the 9th of September we were sworn in Abuja. That’s just about it.
We were five members of the APC in Rivers State announced as members with me as chairman. The announcement came with the chairman and secretary and others as members.
Q: But it seems you only recently assumed office as chairman because at a point we had Hon. Igo Aguma and Hon. Sokonte Davies acting as factional chairmen
A: Somewhere along the line, sometime on the 9th of June, 2020, Justice G.O Omereji entered a judgment against me and the caretaker committee on the suit of Igo Aguma and pronounced that our constitution as a caretaker committee was a nullity and in my place he imposed Igo Aguma as chairman of (I don’t even know what he called it, what body he created) and then said that the body headed by Igo Aguma was supposed to be the Statutory Executive Committee Members of the Rivers State chapter APC as par the constitution of the party. So it comprises of a whole large number of people as par the constitution but headed by Igo Aguma.
Now somewhere along the line, a significant majority of members of the Statutory Executive Committee met, formed a quorum and suspended Igo Aguma as their chairman and in his place nominated Sokonte Davies as chairman and a secretary.
While all that was going on I was on an appeal against the judgment of Omereji and part of the processes I filed at the Appeal Court was an application for injunction pending appeal. Yes!
And the Court of Appeal recently upheld my application and granted a stay of further execution of the judgment of Justice G.O Omereji and that effectively brought me back as the chairman of the Caretaker committee. That was on the 16th July, 2020.
Q: So that puts it at effectively over one month of your returning to office. How has it been?
A: We have been functioning, party activities are going on. We have set up a number of committees since returning to the party secretariat, set up a number of committees. As you are here you can see a number of party members, committee meetings are going on in the hall, I’m here, the staff, everyone is here. Party activities are on-going reconciliations are also on-going somewhere along the line.
Q: But Igo Aguma is still making claims to the leadership of the party.
A: That’s ignorance, crass ignorance. Igo Aguma is very insignificant when it comes to Nigeria, when it comes to the constitution of the country, when it comes to laws of the country, when it comes to the judiciary of the country. I think he wants attention, cheap one and nobody will give that to him. We will completely ignore him.
Q; So how can you clear the controversy of the existence of factional APC leadership in Rivers State.
A: In Nigeria we have one APC and the National secretariat, you know where it is in Abuja and we have officers of the party there. They deal with me and not with Igo Aguma or any other person. I’m in constant touch and communication with them. I have been attending all the meetings that chairmen of other states are attending. I have been receiving correspondences and I have been responding to them as at when due. The registered office of the branch office of the Rivers Chapter of the APC is this place we are right now and where the current office is, the registered office, the one recognized by INEC, recognized by security agencies is where I am. So there is no doubt about who controls the APC in the state.
Q: Does the activities of the Igo Aguma faction of the APC not bother you?
A: No, it is insignificant in the sense that somebody wants attention, a cheap one at that matter and if you join issues with him it means you are glorifying him. If you ignore him, he goes into insignificance. So it doesn’t bother us. At least as I told you, meetings are on-going, we are forging ahead, those who are reconciling, there is a committee for that purpose, they are doing their work, they are reporting from time to time. Other committees are working, party activities are going on at the state, local government and ward levels.
Q: Now talking about reconciliation, President Mohammadu Buhari sometime ago ordered party members across the nation who were in court over one issue or the other to withdraw their cases and seek internal party mechanisms to resolve the matters, is that happening in Rivers State?
A: We are in touch with the national secretariat as far as that is concern. There is no High Court case pending today in respect of APC matters.
Q: Does that mean that you are ready to run along with part of the Justice Omereji’s judgment in respect of those who went to court of exclusion from the 2018 primaries?
A: There are judgments you do not even talk about because when they are procured from persons who from the outset indicated their hatred for specific leaders of the APC, you do not expect anything to come out of them, any fairness, any justice so those kind of judgments are good to be contested because they are not good for the party, they are not good for the members of the party, they are not good for democracy, they are also not good for governance and human relationships. So you don’t allow such judgments to stand.
I give you a small instance. Before the NEC meeting where this pronouncement was made, two, three days before the NEC meeting, Hon. Justice Florence Fibresima purportedly in a judgment suspended or even sacked Victor Giadom as a member of the party. If Victor did not contest that judgment on appeal and the same Victor that midwifed the present government that we are having, was acting national chairman and then, he brought in this new Caretaker committee at the national level. If he didn’t contest that useless judgment on appeal and then upturned it, it means that Victor Giadom would have ceased to be a member of the party, it means all that he did, bringing everybody together and all that would not have been. Is that in the interest of the party, it is not.
The summary is that every bad judgment that affects the party, the party itself would appeal against it and the party is appealing all of those ones you are talking about. The President in saying that people should withdraw matters from the court does not mean that the party should not contest unfair judgment.
Q: In talking about reconciliation, are those aggrieved persons taken into consideration?
A: Yes! The reconciliation is all embracing, it’s all embracing.
Q: And the members are cooperating with it?
A: Yes, I can tell you for free.
Q: Ok, that is on one level of the reconciliation. On the second and more important level, are the major dramatis personae, the leaders?
A: We have just one reconciliation committee and it covers everybody, irrespective of status or faction, it covers every member of the party who are aggrieved who has something to say about one thing or the other, grievance or the other.
Q: Now you want to confirm to me that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and …
A: I want to confirm to you that reconciliation is on-going in the party at the Rivers State level and that it is all embracing, irrespective of your stature and status in the party.
Q: The committee mid-wifing that reconciliation. Is it constituted by the national secretariat or is it internal to the state?
A: This is our internal thing, headed by two senators within the state. At the national level I think they are gradually setting up sub-committees for each state, something is happening in Imo State but for now we have not been communicated on any for Rivers State. There was something before now but it didn’t get to Rivers State under Oshiomhole’s regime. But internally, even before we receive any external committee, we had started our own and it is headed by two senators.
Q: We know that activities are already gearing up towards the next political dispensation, what are we expecting from the Rivers APC?
A: So long as the party APC remains in existence in the country, APC Rivers State will contest the next election, APC will take over the Brick House, APC in the country will retain the presidency.
Q: Can you confidently tell me that the APC Rivers State under you will be able to settle all the internal disagreements bedeviling the party and be able to provide a formidable party that will fight for power in Rivers State?
A: Providing a formidable party in the state is sure, ability to settle all grievances, I’m not God to pronounce on that because you feel sometimes that you have settled an issue and some persons are still dissatisfied. We are not God to know who has accepted settlement or who has not accepted, we are not God to read the minds of humans. So we will do our best as a party, as human beings and leave the rest to the individuals involved and then to God too.
Q: The party is also hit by high profile defections, with the most recent being Hon. Chidi Llyod, former Leader of the State House of Assembly. How does the party view it and what steps are you taking to prevent such high profile defections?
A: Well APC as a party, we regret that we have one or two persons who decided to leave our party, our platform to join other platforms, we regret it but the truth is that there is little or nothing you can do about a full adult who has made up his mind to take a particular step or make a particular move. You just try your best but ultimately it is his decision whether he wants to change his mind or not.
But we have consistently been offering explanations to our members, telling our members to be steadfast, to remain faithful to the party and committed, you know that after every storm comes a calm weather. We are doing our best to ensure that we retain what we have and increase our numbers. As people are defecting from APC to other platforms, we are receiving defectors to from PDP and other platforms. A serving member of the House of Representatives in Omuma/Etche Federal constituency has just moved over to our party, just moved over to APC.
Q: Has that been official?
A: I’m telling you that a serving member of the House of Representatives representing Omuma/Etche Federal Constituency has moved to our platform.
Q: What are the programmes currently on ground to keep the party together and forge ahead? When are you planning for congresses?
A: Congresses are constitutionally the prerogative of the national secretariat. The party at the state level has no role to play. National Secretariat conducts congresses, brings in officers and post them, as you are seeing in other states, and post them where they want to post them. We have as at today not received any notification, any information as to congresses for now. So when they notify us, ours is to create the enabling environment for the people to come and do their work.
Q: Is there any support from the party here to its Edo counterpart in the forth-coming governorship election in Edo state?
A: In the campaign committee set up by the national secretariat and all their different sub-committees that are piloting that affairs, Rivers and South-South people are fully involved.
Q: Now as the chairman in Rivers State, what will be your call to party members both the ones that are with you and those outside?
A: Every party member is with me, it’s one party, I was appointed by the national, in fact my caretaker committee and myself were appointed by the national secretariat. Except you do not belong to the APC in Nigeria, then perhaps you belong to some other platform, if you are a true member of the party, then the national secretariat has directed, has appointed, and so you must work with them. If you have grievances you follow the internal mechanisms of the party, robust internal mechanisms provided in the constitution of the party and other non-formal methods of resolving issues internally.
Q: What are you promising those that have ambitions, those that are nursing different ambitions at different levels?
A: Level playing field. If I have power to do anything, then level playing field. But all of those issues of whether it is internal party offices or for election purposes it’s usually the call of national secretariat, the call of the national party, not state.
