The All Progressives Congress Caretaker Committee, led by Chief Tony Okocha, and the camp loyal to the former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, are on a collision course over the party’s participation in the forthcoming local government elections in the state.
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, led by Justice Adolphus Enebeli (retd.), announced on Monday at a stakeholders’ meeting that the state would conduct the LG elections on October 5 in the 23 local government areas of the state.
While the Okocha-led APC CTC remained sceptical about participating in the elections, the Amaechi camp expressed its determination to field candidates.
Reacting to the stakeholders meeting convened by the electoral commission, Okocha said neither he nor the party was invited.
Okocha said, “I was not invited. My party was not invited. My party is too big not to be officially invited to an event like that. I am too big to attend an event to which t I was not officially invited.
“RSIEC refused to officially invite me as the chairman of a major opposition party in the state. I saw information about the stakeholders meeting on social media.
“I was in the church on Sunday and I sent a mail to the chairman of RSIEC and he replied that APC was a major stakeholder. My party can only take part in the election only if things are done right.”
Corroborating Okocha’s views, the APC CTC Publicity Secretary, Chibike Ikenga, said the main opposition party in the state was absent at the stakeholders’ meeting called by RSIEC because it did not receive any official communication.
Ikenga, however, said the party would decide when it received an official communication, even as he accused the commission of starting on a wrong footing.
“In a matter that is critical as that, ordinarily as a party and other parties, we ought to have been formally invited.
“If they (RSIEC) invited other parties officially, they
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