The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended Governor Nyesom Wike for releasing the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, to the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for next Wednesday’s campaign rally in the state.
The APC Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju, said the approval was a result of the efforts of the campaign council through James Faleke, the Campaign Secretary and the State Coordinator, Tonye Cole.
Nwauju described as erroneous the claim that the approval came through Tony Okocha, whom he described as a mere member of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) promoting the candidature of Tinubu in Rivers State.
He said: “Tony is not and cannot be the coordinator of an APC event as he is merely a member of an NGO under the PCC promoting the candidature of our presidential candidate. He has no right to address the media either on behalf of the Presidential Rally Committee/LOC or the APC in Rivers State.
“Tony’s NGO has nothing to do with the preparations by Rivers State APC to host its Presidential candidate on the 15th of February 2023. We are surprised that the PDP in the state is so interested in using the likes of Tony as a decoy to join the APC.”
Nwauju, who spoke in Port Harcourt on Thursday, confirmed that Wike had given the local government chairmen in the state and his aides a directive to work for Tinubu in the state.
He said: “Today, we are surprised that the Governor of Rivers State, who once referred to the APC as ‘cancer’ and has mocked our party, that anyone who would try to continue with the legacies of the APC is an enemy of the people of Nigeria, surprisingly, we have reliably gathered of the instructions to council chairmen across the 23 LGAs to canvass support surreptitiously for the Presidential candidate of the APC”.
He recalled that a few days ago, the governor alleged that there were intelligence reports that the APC in Rivers was planning to share the same campaign venue with the PCC of Atiku/Okowa