‘Praise me for whistleblowing’ — ex-Rivers CoS Tony Okocha confesses to election rigging

Tony Okocha, ex-chairman of the caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, has admitted to election rigging. 

Okocha served as chief of staff to Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers, from 2007 to 2015.

He was recently ousted as chair of the Rivers APC caretaker committee by a high court. 

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, Okocha said he should be praised for publicly confessing to manipulating votes in the past. 

“Yes, I didn’t hide. I should be praised as a whistleblower. If you were an armed robber yesterday and today you come here to say you stole somewhere someday, are you saying that the law will now take retroactive effect? The answer is no,” he said.

“When you have an idea of a thing and you see the other person also wants to use the same tactics that are very known to you, you would shout.

“All of us were together (in the rigging business) including those now on the other side.”

Okocha claimed that Emeka Beke, chairman of the APC in Rivers, also partook in the unlawful act — a claim Beke immediately refuted. 

“Are you saying that under Ameachi administration, you never participated?” Okocha asked Beke.

“I did not partake in any election rigging whatsoever. Please don’t get me involved. I’m not part of that. You rigged the election. We are going to ask the police to arrest you because you rigged elections,” Beke said. 

The APC in Rivers has been polarised ahead of the forthcoming local government election in the state.

In August, a state high court presided by Sika Aprioku sacked Okocha as chair of the caretaker committee. 

Some members of the party, including Sam Etetegwung, Banarth Ezemoye and others, had filed a suit asking that Beke’s executive be reinstated after they were suspended and subsequently removed from office by the national leadership of the APC.

Justice Aprioku had issued an injunction restraining the Okocha-led committee from distracting the Beke leadership, pending the expiration of their four-year tenure.

The court also ordered the national leadership of the APC to recognise Beke as the authentic leader of the party in Rivers.