Samuel Marshall
The crisis within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has intensified, leading to a high court in Port Harcourt issuing a ruling that reinstates Mr Emeka Bekee as the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in the State, with Chief Tony Okocha and his Caretaker Committee removed from their positions as the party’s administrators.
Justice Sika Henry Aprioku delivered the verdict on Monday, 12th August 2024, stating that the National Working Committee (NWC) should not have disbanded an elected Committee, such as the one led by Mr Bekee, in favour of an unelected Caretaker Committee, such as that headed by Chief Tony Okocha.
The court ruled that the elected Committee should have been allowed to serve its full four-year term, as outlined in the party’s constitution.
Nevertheless, the NWC, on Thursday, 15th August, reaffirmed its support for the Okocha-led Caretaker Committee, regardless of the ruling. The disbanded seven-member Committee, in a press statement, announced its plans to appeal the decision to a higher court.
Okocha provided reasons for the decision to appeal, highlighting that the APC was not mentioned in the lawsuit that resulted in the court’s ruling. He emphasized that only the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, was specifically named as a party in the lawsuit. Okocha argued that the trial judge’s orders, which involved parties not included in the lawsuit, were legally flawed. He also claimed that the Supreme Court had previously stated that the court should not interfere in an “intra-party matter” meaning an issue occurring within the membership of a party.
In another development, Chief Okocha took a strategic initiative by organizing a counter-protest march on Tuesday, 13th of August, which drew a significant crowd in support of President Bola Tinubu. In his address to the media, he characterized the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest as “politically motivated” and accused Governor Sim Fubara of being behind the Rivers State sector of the demonstrations.***
