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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, its governorship and national assembly candidates for leaving out the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of their campaigns.
He also called on the G-5 governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), popularly known as the ‘Integrity Group’, to support the presidential aspiration of 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.
“Our governorship candidate in all his engagements has not find 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 kin 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 added by challenging candidates for the national assembly seats in the state over failure to campaigning for the presidential candidate of the party.
“We challenge again, the National Assembly candidates of the APC Rivers whose election are 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, saying; “One would have thought that after the presidential primaries that threw up the presidential candidate of our party that those who hitherto were aversed 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 biles, 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 him replicate the transformation he carried out in Lagos in the country, just like he did in Lagos, which he described as a dungeon before 1999.
Okocha, who was former Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House in the Rotimi Amaechi era as state governor, stated 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 in the state 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 descriminate against those who are ready and willing to work for Asiwaju/Shettima presidency whether they are full-fledged members of the party or not”, said Okocha, prominent member of the APC faction that worked against the participation of the party in the 2019 general elections.
“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,” he added.
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 registerd support groups who will campaign, and support the Tinubu/Shettima presidency. We will soon constitute a 224,000 unit representatives accross the various units because we believe that Nigeria will be better under Tinubu.”
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