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#EndBadGovernance protest: APC, Rivers govt bicker over attack on party secretariat

As the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest continues in Rivers State with some violent dimensions being introduced, the state All Progressives Congress (APC), under Sir Tony Okocha, and the Rivers State Government are at each other’s throats, trading blame.

The Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party, Sir Tony Okocha, publicly accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara on Tuesday of sponsoring the protesters who attacked the party’s secretariat on Monday, tearing down the party’s signpost along the Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway.

The State Government, however, immediately responded through Senibo Joseph Johnson, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, exonerating the Governor from any such involvement and, in turn, accusing the APC Caretaker Chairman of sponsoring the violent protests to justify calling for a state of emergency in the state.

Okocha, reacting to the attack on his secretariat on Aba Road, where some hoodlums among the protesters destroyed the party’s giant billboard, told journalists in Port Harcourt that the attackers were arranged and sponsored by a source. He added that the vandals threatened to return for another attack.

Okocha stated, “Today, the issue in point is the vandalisation of the APC secretariat by hoodlums, who were arranged and sponsored by a source, which, in the course of this engagement, I will reveal. I will name the source. We are not scared to name the source because the situation has become so political.

“Our secretariat was attacked yesterday, and they left us with a note that they are coming back again. We don’t know whether coming back again will be today or in the future. It was about 5:00 pm yesterday that they vandalised our secretariat complex. We preempted them because we knew and anticipated what they would do.

“We have information that they had been paid to destroy our party secretariat. And who is paying them? They are being paid and sponsored by the government of Rivers State. Their interest, as far as we are concerned, is not to make Rivers State the epicentre of the protest.”

In a quick response to Okocha’s allegations, Commissioner Johnson absolved the governor of involvement in such a destructive act, saying it was not in line with his character and person to destroy other people’s property.

According to the Commissioner, “I consider it a childish accusation because, in law, anyone who alleges has the onus of proof. Tony Okocha’s words are no longer strong enough to receive any listening ear from any reasonable person in Rivers State. I want to believe that we are overreaching Tony Okocha.”

“The governor does not have in his DNA any atom of destruction. He’s not treacherous, he’s not somebody you can point an accusing finger at for something that belittles his character. The governor spoke to protesters on the 1st of August, when this protest started, and the whole state became calm. The protesters you find milling around may be part of the machinations of Tony Okocha and his cohorts imported into the state. I do not think any reasonable person should give heed to what Tony has said because the governor is far from it. I don’t see how anybody in their imagination would think that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is one man who will think of doing evil, not to mention burning a non-existent secretariat.

Johnson continued, “The night before the protest was to start, the governor held a meeting with members of the security council, including the heads of the military and the commissioner of police. The governor also met with the CSOs, appealing to them not to do anything, and the result is what we are seeing. I doubt if there was even any attempt to get to any secretariat known in the guise of any secretariat, because there’s none. The only one I know is in GRA because that’s the one occupied by Emeka Bekee.

“Tony Okocha operates a one-man show. He does not have any Exco to think of a secretariat. He doesn’t have anyone. I think Rivers people should consign his accusation to the trash can because it is baseless, balderdash, and has no foundation.”

The Commissioner, in turn, accused Okocha, saying, “Tony Okocha came from Abuja with instructions to carry out some nefarious plans. Some of those plans have failed. God has disappointed their machinations, and they are not able to perform their enterprise. That’s why they are trying to see how they can stoke trouble to see whether their plans for a state of emergency can materialise, but God has disappointed them.”

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