APC Rivers Rejects Reports of 27 Lawmakers Defecting, Blames Fubara for Crisis

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Rivers State chapter has denied that the 27 troubled lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
Speaking during a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, APC state chairman Tony Okocha stated that the lawmakers had never officially joined the party, despite widespread speculation.
According to reports, Okocha stated that the December 2023 event at the Port Harcourt Polo Club, which many mistakenly thought was a reception for the defecting lawmakers, was actually a celebration of the APC’s state executive council inauguration.

Okocha denied receiving Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule and his companions into the APC, claiming they attended the Polo Club function as friends.
“There was no intention to organize a reception for what we were not holding,” Okocha told me.

“We were inaugurated in Abuja and decided to host a reception and thanksgiving for our members. “It was not to receive the 27 lawmakers,” he stated.

He continued, “We were misconstrued as having received the 27 lawmakers into the APC. That is incorrect. We invited individual members of the Assembly. I developed a relationship with them over time. We tried to persuade them to join the celebration. I was intentional in inviting them to join us. We would have been overjoyed if we had succeeded.”

Governor Fubara is accused of flouting court orders.
Okocha also accused Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara of repeatedly breaking the rule of law, stating that he refused to follow court orders.

He highlighted Justice James Omotosho’s Federal High Court decision, which granted 15 reliefs to Amaewhule and his company but that the governor allegedly ignored.

“We are disgusted by the Governor’s disdain for the rule of law. Justice James Omotosho issued 15 reliefs in his decision, but the governor has failed to follow them, he claimed.

Okocha criticized the governor’s presentation of the 2024 state budget, claiming that Fubara lacked legal authority to present it to a ‘three-man Assembly.’

“You can’t manage the state without an annual budget. But the governor is doing it.

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“You can’t offer a budget to a three-man Assembly. The Appeal Court referred to it as a ‘forum,'” Okocha stated, alluding to the state legislature crisis.

He asked both sides to respect the Supreme Court’s decision when it is finally made.

“We wish that both parties in the case should be courageous enough to heed the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment when the time comes,” claimed Okocha.