- Lukman reveals dissolution of Rivers State party chapter and creation of caretaker committee with Tony Okocha as chairman as part of planned plot to hand over party structures to Wike.
- Recall that the State Assembly complex was demolished last Monday on the order of Governor Fubara as the building which had earlier been gutted by fire was claimed to have failed integrity test.
Salihu Lukman, a former national vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress for the North West, has accused the party’s national secretariat of being involved in the power struggle in Rivers State between state governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
Approximately 27 legislators who supported the prior governor and were part of the People’s Democratic Party have switched to the All Progressives Coalition.
Governor Fubara ordered the demolition of the State Assembly complex last Monday because it was allegedly found to have failed an integrity test. The building had previously been completely destroyed by fire.
Speaking with journalist at the weekend, Lukman noted that the dissolution of the Rivers State chapter of the party by its national chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and creation of a caretaker committee with Tony Okocha, an ally of the FCT Minister as chairman was part of an orchestrated plot to hand over the party structures to Wike ahead of next general elections.
He said: “I think we( APC), should take responsibility in some ways because perhaps if as leaders of the party, we didn’t indulge Wike the way we did, he would have managed his relationship back in Rivers with the governor and other political leaders better.
“I think, for me honestly, because I don’t want to play cheap politics, we must appeal to Wike if for whatever reason he will make the choice he made to support Siminalayi Fubara to emerge as the Governor, he must take responsibility and leave with the consequences and find a way to swallow the bitter pills.
“Because we are not talking about governance. The more he mismanaged his relationship with Fubara, the fight which they were doing for now those who were going to be receiving the short end of the stick were the people of Rivers.
“This is going to happen at the expense of governance. You can see based on the street fight you can see an “arrangee” has been made, Fubara presented budget and in less than 24 hours it was passed. This is not democracy anymore.
“Look, if this democracy is to move this country forward, we need leaders who will make the needed sacrifice so that citizens can be happy. Not to go on street fighting simply because that you disagree with yourselves.”
Stretching his argument further, the former DG of the Progressives Governors Forum argued that the manner the APC Caretaker in Rivers openly romanced the FCT Minister showed that he was being emboldened by the APC to disrupt governance in the south state.
“You are witnesses, I am sure when the group of the so-called Caretaker Committee came to pay the courtesy visit to the national chairman and shortly after that the national vice chairman South/south led APC leaders from that state to go and visit Wike and after that without any local problem in Rivers state the national working committee sat down and dissolved all structures of APC so as to open the door for Wike to come into the party. So, I mean you just give him license to say you are welcome whatever you do we accept it. That is what I mean by indulgence and I don’t think we should reduce politics further.
“Unfortunately, for us, that is where we are. We reduced the whole politics to the issue of electoral contest. Less than six months coming out of a general election we are already commencing the contest for the next general election which will come up in the next four years. The question of what elected representatives should do to deliver on the promises made has already been sacrificed.
“Citizens are just waiting, they are
at the receiving end. We promised renewed hope, we are doing nothing to renew the hope and everybody is quiet.”