APC: Pro-Wike lawmakers in Rivers assembly don’t belong to our party

Tony Okocha, chair of the caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, says the 27 lawmakers loyal to Nyesom Wike in the state’s house of assembly are not members of his party.

Speaking with reporters in Abuja on Thursday, Okocha said he has been trying to woo Wike and the lawmakers to his party without success.

The rift between Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), and Siminalayi Fubara, have polarised the Rivers house of assembly.

While the Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers parliament is loyal to Wike, another one led by Victor Oko-Jombo is loyal to Fubara.

The caretaker chair said the FCT minister would never leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“People say Wike has decamped to the APC. They also say that the 27 lawmakers currently fighting with Fubara have defected to the APC,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“I need to make this clear to everyone. Much as I wish to have them in my fold, none of them has agreed to join us.

“I am the one that should know if they did. But, clearly, they have not. What the lawmakers did was a political gimmick.

“I tried to woo them, but they kept vacillating and did not.

“To defect, they must go to their wards, register and get their membership cards. None of them has done that.”

Wike will never leave the PDP. He has always said that PDP made him what he is. He has always said that he would remain there.

“He is an ardent believer in PDP. He is not likely to leave that group. In Rivers, I am 001 in APC, but in the Renewed Hope Agenda, I am 002. Wike is 001.”

Okocha said Wike is a politician who identifies with every good cause irrespective of political party.