The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee in Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha, has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu acted on security reports to declare a State of Emergency rule in the state.
Okocha stated this on Thursday in Abuja while briefing the media at the APC National Headquarters.
It would be recalled that President Tinubu two weeks ago declared an Emergency rule in Rivers State, suspending the governor, deputy governor and state Assembly. He appointed an Administrator for the state.
However, the actions of the President had attracted wide criticism from Nigerians, including former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.
But reacting to the criticisms, Okocha said the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan should have no reason to condemn the actions of President Tinubu since they also acted on the security reports in the past to declare a State of Emergency in States.
Okocha alleged that things went out of place in Rivers State to the extent that people like him were hiding and couldn’t come out at all times.
He submitted that the SOE has solved 90% of the crisis in the state, quipping that the decision of Mr President was a necessary evil. Whether the impeachment or suspension as it were today, I can tell you that 90 percent of the political crisis in Rivers was solved.
“It was very necessary. It is like when you have a hernia, and the only solution is an operation. The hernia is painful, and the operation is painful, but without the operation, you won’t have any peace.”
On the complaints by some persons that the FCT minister should also have been suspended, Okocha said, “Was he in the fray? The answer is no. If bringing him to the fray is because he is the leader of that political structure, then you may be right. The 32 assembly members were produced and sponsored by the former Governor of Rivers State, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, His Excellency Ezenwo Nyesom Wike CON.
“The election was one day, assembly and governorship. Are you not aware of what happened? The same group also threw up the governor of the state. So if you want to get him into the fray, that is the only reason you can or should.
“The other point we make is that, and I have said that here before, Gov. Fubara was the weakest political investment. I have said that many times. What happens to you when you have invested? Should you allow the investment to fly away or to explode? And in Politics, I am talking about even in Economics, in politics, it is heavy, if not impossible, for someone to allow you to dismantle his political structure.
They are all members of the same party. We have APC; they are members of a party called PDP. For those who are calling for his suspension and all that, they are not getting the point right. That man had been at the epicenter of peace.
How do we resolve this matter? But the governor became so hydra-headed that his head became bigger than his pillow. He had some people who told him, You have the red pen; you know all and do all; you can make or unmake with your red pen. I am sure some of you saw him in the program where he brought the red pen out and said, ‘This is the red pen; it is still with me. This is what they are after.
“I still have it. I don’t know whether the red pen has dried up now, or maybe it will dry up before six months,“ Okocha added.
Countering the former Presidents who have criticized the State of Emergency rule, he said, “There’s what we call argumental or fictitious principle. There’s also what the courts will know, that you argue from ignorance, a point of ignorance. Mr. President knows more than they do know.
“Thank God President Jonathan had been president. General Obasanjo had been president. And they knew that on their table every day is what they call security reports.
And so one wonders how they will jump into the matter, not recognizing or realizing that in their time they also had security reports. Aware of what we were pushing, in Rivers state the Assembly members had issued a letter stating gross misconduct against the governor of Rivers state. It was supposedly the first step.”
