APC woos Wike, offers him party leadership in Rivers

• … says Fubara’s impeachment still in consideration

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said efforts were ongoing to woo the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to the party and that whenever he agrees to join it, he would assume the position of the leader of the party in Rivers State.

Daily Trust reports that Wike, the immediate past governor of the state, though insists he remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been at daggers drawn with the party since the 2023 general elections, where he contested and lost the party’s primary election for its presidential ticket to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Recently, a cold war broke out between him and his political godson and current governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara, leading to the factionalisation of the State House of Assembly and the eventual defection of 27 lawmakers loyal to him (Wike) to the APC.

But with the declaration of the seats of the 27 lawmakers as vacant by the court-recognized Speaker of the House, Edison Ehie, a loyalist of Fubara on Wednesday, the Rivers State chapter of the APC said the developments have confirmed that the peace talk initiated between Wike and Fubara by President Bola Tinubu had collapsed.

The chairman of the APC caretaker committee in the state, Tony Okocha, disclosed this yesterday while briefing newsmen on the recent developments in the state, after his meeting with the National Working Committee (NWC) at the APC national secretariat in Abuja.

“We want APC to win Rivers this time, and when he (Wike) comes, he will be the leader of the party in the state,” he said.

Responding to a question on the reported Tinubu’s recent intervention, Okocha said, “I wasn’t part of it, but whatever that was, it has broken down, and it has been broken irreconcilably.”

Okocha also said the decision by the four members of the state assembly to pass the budget presented to it by Governor Fubara, for the 2024 fiscal year without the presence of the 27 members who defected to the APC a few days ago would not stand, adding that it was an illegality.

Okocha also said the party’s representatives in the state House of Assembly was considering the option of initiating impeachment proceedings against Gov Fubara over a number of Constitutional infringements.

“Although I am not a member of the state House of Assembly, but impeachment is a democratic process. Impeachment is not a coup detat,” he said.

Speaking on the demolition of the state House of assembly complex, Okocha said the APC would not allow illegality to thrive in the state. He added that the defected lawmakers would continue to meet elsewhere, so long as they had the mace, which was the symbol of authority with them. “Let me also let you know that what makes an assembly is not the structure, but the human beings in that assembly.

“So, an assembly can be moved to anywhere, provided the mace which is its symbol of authority is there. As at yesterday, about 27 members sat and took far-reaching decisions on state matters,” he said.