The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Rivers State Chapter, Chief Tony Okocha, has defended the emergency rule declared by President Bola Tinubu in the state, citing escalating security threats.

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According to Chief Okocha, Rivers State was on the brink of anarchy due to increasing security concerns in various parts of the state.

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Okocha made this statement while addressing journalists at the APC headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.

Justifying the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the declaration of a state of emergency, Okocha commended the President for his “timely” intervention and criticized those opposing the decision.

“The state of emergency called by Mr. President saved Rivers State from anarchy. When you see non-state actors brandishing guns and making statements that promote lawlessness, then you should know there is a problem.

“I see some people jumping onto television platforms to cast aspersions on Mr. President and condemn what they do not understand. Mr. President knows more than they do.

“The truth of the matter is that Rivers State was headed towards anarchy. We all know Rivers is one of the states that sustain this country. Some of the same people criticizing the President now would have also condemned him if he had done nothing.”

Chief Okocha also questioned the silence of former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) when the Rivers State House of Assembly complex was demolished under Governor Fubara’s administration.

“Thank God, President Goodluck Jonathan has been president, General Obasanjo has been president, and they know that every day on their table, they receive security reports.

“I hear the NBA saying the suspension is an affront to democracy. But when the assembly complex was burned and the next day, eleven pieces of equipment were deployed to demolish it, the NBA was silent. They were alive, yet we didn’t hear anything from them”, he said.

Reacting to criticism over why the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, was not sanctioned despite allegations that he contributed to the unrest, Okocha argued that Wike was not involved in the crisis.

He said, “For those asking why the Governor and members of the State House of Assembly were suspended but not the Minister of the FCT—was he in the frame? The answer is no”

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Former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the 2023 general election, Adewole Adebayo said, God has told him that the party will produce the next president in 2027 general election.

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Speaking over the weekend in Abeokua when he met the members and executive who were led by the State Chairman, Yinka Ola-Williams, said he could confirm that a President of SDP will mount Aso Rock villa in 2027.

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“One thing that God is telling me is that there will be an SDP president in the villa in 2027.

“For the first time in a long time, we will have people who care for the people. Let’s remain focused. The problems of Nigeria are our problems, not individuals.

“We are not against Tinubu as a person but we are against hunger, inflation, poverty, insecurity, unemployment. That’s what we are against,” he said.

Buttressing Adebayo’s position on modalities of joining the party, the SDP Chairman in Ogun State, Mr. Yinka Ola-Williams, disowned 30,000 membership cards and registers allegedly being flaunted by one of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirants in the 2023 governorship election in the State.

Ola-Williams said the party’s door is widely opened to anybody who wants to join, but such a person or group, no matter how highly placed, must follow the procedure as laid down in the party’s constitution.

He emphatically stated that the party had nothing to do with the membership cards and registers claimed by the aspirant, who said he got them from the party’s National Secretariat.

“We want people to join us, and we want to work together to provide a better government than what we have now that will remove poverty, provide a better healthcare system for people, improve education and all.

“But not that they come to the party, hijack the party and take the structure away. That’s what we will not agree,” Ola-Williams said.

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Barrister Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, apprehensive of massive defection to the party urged defectors to go through legitimate route and due process.

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Speaking over the weekend in Abeokuta, Adebayo when he met with SDP members and executive members led by the State Chairman, Yinka Ola-Williams, said the party is open to defectors, but they must do so legitimately.

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Flanked by the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, the former presidential candidate allayed fears that defectors may hijack the party, stressing that the National Working Committee of SDP can only issue membership cards through the executive at the state levels.

He said, “People are counterfeiting naira, they are counterfeiting the dollar, they’re bringing counterfeit rice, and NAFDAC is chasing counterfeit drugs. Why are you surprised that there are counterfeit party cards? Especially if the party cards are carried by counterfeit politicians who have a history of doing counterfeiting in their former parties. So, we should forgive everybody, but this counterfeiting will not work in SDP.”

“We are not fighting anybody we are only saying ‘come to our house through the front door not through the ceiling or the window.’ That’s all. Everybody here joined the party legitimately, anybody coming will join legitimately”.

“We have spoken to the National Chairman and the NWC, he said there’s no counterfeiting of anything. Any card that’s not given through the state, LG and executives is not from the SDP. So, if they come, you will tell them to go away. Put your name in our register here and pay us here. We will get the card for you. That’s how it is”.

“They want to run faster than their legs. Secondly, you are hearing rumors that people are coming to our party, Awolowo is coming, Azikiwe is coming, Balewa, Ahmadu Bello is coming. Let’s see them. Nigerians know us and they know them.”

He ruled out any plan that SDP would merge or collaborate with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC or any political party ahead of 2027 general election.

According to him, SDP is committed to the well-being and welfare of Nigerians, while he ruled out insinuations that the party is an appendage of APC.

“Maybe APC has appendicitis; they should go to the hospital to kill it. We are a strong party. We are older than any of the parties available. Our mission is clear: we are not in government with them.

“I led the party in the last election. I’m still standing here. I’m not a minister under Tinubu; all the state chairman and the national chairman are intact, including the national secretary. So, we are standing on our own.

“The reason people look down on us is because we don’t attack people, but we tackle issues because our party is a party of intellect. We are the only party that’s a little to the left. Having been a little to the left since we came in 1989, we remain so.

“The problems of Nigeria can only be found with solutions on the left, which is that chapter two of the Constitution, invest money in education, in housing, in healthcare, good infrastructure, let Nigerians live what chief Obafemi Awolowo called a life more abundant,” he said.

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