RE: RIVERS STATE CHAPTER OyF ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS REJECTS APPOINTMENT OF RIVERS PDP MEMBERS TO POSITIONS AND OFFICES BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU, GCFR.
The National Chairman,
All Progressives Congress,
Buhari House,
40 Blantyre Street,
Wuse 2,
Abuja, FCT
Your Excellency,
Our attention has been drawn again to a whining tirade in the guise of a protest letter authored by one Mr. Sam Sam Etetegwung (claiming himself as Secretary, APC Rivers).
The original thought was to ignore the hogwash and concentrate on our pious and fervent prayers for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR and our party, the APC, to be well able to deliver on the promise of a Renewed Hope to a seemingly hopeless Nigerian society.
But standing on the philosophy that “society suffers because just people elect to do nothing,” we have decided to offer this refutation to set the records straight.
First, both the “actus reus” and “mens rea” behind that letter of protest to Mr. President and the National Chairman of the APC are defective. It belongs only in a trash can/dustbin and should be consigned to the darkest page in any party’s history.
The acclaimed Secretary in trying to be clever by half, knowing that he was merely overtly presenting his jaundiced opinion, refused to mention the office of the Chairman of the Party in the State. (Even where he tried, it was in passing).
He is well aware that a subsisting judgement of a high court in RIvers State, with Suit No: PHC/925/CS/2023, upheld the indefinite suspension of the elected Chairman of APC Rivers, Chief Emeka Bekee and the legal adviser, for no less the established case of Anti~Party activities, and so, ordered that Mr Omiete Eferebo, who was the Elected Deputy Chairman of the APC Rivers, should assume the office of the State Chairman on acting capacity.
Did the author of the prose in issue, consult with the legally recognised Acting Helmsman of the Party in RIvers State?
Does he have his consent to craft a letter to the National Chairman on behalf of the State Chapter of the Party?
So, under what garb did he write?
Consider:
- Is it administratively right for a letter of any content, addressed to the National Chairman of the Party, from a supposed State chapter of the same Party, to not have the authority and consent of the State Chairman of the Party?
- Was the letter in question solely signed by the acclaimed State Secretary of the APC Rivers State, a product of a meeting of either the State Working Committee or a resolution stemming from a stakeholders meeting?
If the first disjunct is in the positive, the question is, who presided over the SWC meeting?
Is the Secretary of the party the highest officer in the leadership organogram?
If the second disjunct is relied upon, we dare to ask again, “who convened the meeting”?
At what date, venue, and time?
Having dismissed the entire gamut of puerile “ex nihilo” offerings as contained in the self-made letter on grounds of locus of the author, we could jolly well rest our case. But permit us to state that Mr. Sam Etetegwung’s actions are best described as flagrant rascality, an affront to the Party hierarchy and membership. It is a clear case of mutiny, as in military parlance, and the highest level of indiscipline expected of any Party member.
All the avowals in the sub-heads and paragraphs of that ill-conceived shibboleth are very puny and crassly fallacious concoctions, stemming from the unqualified author’s figment of imagination.
Mr. Etetegwung is not in a position to know the veritable indices that combined to bring about the victory of President Tinubu/APC in Rivers State in the February 25, 2023 Presidential Election.
Does he not realize that since the dispensation that started effectively in 1998 with a general election in 1999, PDP and no other party else, won the Governorship and Presidential Elections in Rivers State?.
Has he forgotten that, just like his master Amaechi, he called the bluff on Tinubu and APC during the Presidential Campaign in Rivers State? Is it lost on him that in his unit, ward, and Local Government Area, Andoni LGA, Rivers State, he openly collaborated with Prince Uche Secondus, Engr Sampson Ngerebara, etc., and ensured that Atiku, not Tinubu, won the Presidential Election?
Reading the whining tirade, as we rightly choose to describe the letter of Mr. Etetegwung, it beats us hollow to find that heavy weather was made about what the author referred to as a carnage in electioneering in 2014/2015 in Rivers State. He seemed to know the dramatis personae but refused to offer his information to the security agencies whose duty is to bring culprits to justice.
He couldn’t mention that it wasn’t Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was on the ballot for APC during the 2015 and 2019 Elections. He couldn’t mention that his boss, who was the leader of the APC Rivers, Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, occupied the Rivers State Ministerial Slot and was Super Minister for 8 years and never assisted any of those affected families, who, by his confession now, suffered losses because of their affiliation with APC Rivers.
How did President Tinubu/APC win in Rivers State against the patently announced instructions of Amaechi, flanked by the likes of Etetegwung?
Is Etetegwung about to hide the fact that just as Amaechi delivered Atiku in his polling unit 14, in ward 8 Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers State, Etetegwung also delivered Atiku in his unit 004, Unyeada ward 6, Andoni LGA?
How then did they make President Tinubu win Rivers State?
We wish to school Mr. Etetegwung on the fact that his case is akin to the biblical prodigal son. The marked difference here is that while the prodigal son in the Bible returned to his father in remorse, repentance and self-pity, Mr. Etetegwung and his cronies are being violent in their approach. “A baby goat kneels down to suck the Mother’s breast”~African Traditional proverb.
How could anyone work in a Federal Parastatal and go to demand monthly remuneration from Shell Petroleum PLC?
We have it on good authority that Mr. Etetegwung, his paymasters, and a few deceived young people in cahoots with them, only waited for the Presidential Tribunal judgment to decide on what line to toe.
Had Atiku been declared the winner in the incorrigible judgments of the PEPT, would this group not have been singing Alleluia to the high heavens? .
Having lost, they are now resorting to uncanny and uncouth approaches of blackmail and ad miserecodia. It will never work. The odds are clearly tilted against them.
If there is any atom of contrition and dignity left in the personalities of Etetegwung and his ilk, they would have devised a back-channel approach to seek absolution instead of unabashedly, impenitently, and audaciously attempting to blackmail President Tinubu in a bid to reap where they never sowed.
These are the same people who threw series of unutterable and unspeakable aspersions on Tinubu; ~ how he wears diapers,
~how his hands and body shake,
~ how he can’t run a 400m race,
~ how he is a drug baron,
~how he gaffes, etc. They even undertook series of prayer sessions for Tinubu to die or become incapacitated health wise, so that Amaechi can secure the Presidential ticket, after he was spectacularly defeated at the Presidential Primary election.
These are the same people attempting to blackmailing President Tinubu into giving them appointments in his government, regardless of the fact that they never contributed to Tinubu’s victory in any way.
Starting from the Presidential primary election, where they allocated all 69 delegates votes from Rivers State to Amaechi, to the general election, where they openly worked and voted for Atiku without considering their own party’s Presidential Candidate, this group of shameless agitators, treated the course of Tinubu, with ignominy.
One then begins to wonder on what moral grounds they are claiming entitlement, immediately after their Atiku’s defeat at the PEPT. Should “Peter be robbed to pay Paul”?.
For the umpteenth time, we reiterate the obvious and undeniable truth that the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR in Rivers State would never be complete without acknowledging the overwhelming support of the PDP in Rivers State.
Former Governor Wike, now FCT Minister Wike, in pursuit and deliberate move to effectuate the tenets of Justice, Fairness and Truth, laid the groundwork for the unprecedented victory of the APC Presidential candidate. His deft efforts, paid off. Any appointment or patronage as a gesture of goodwill in reciprocation for the genuinely BATified in RIvers State and such as Minister Wike nominates, are perfectly justified.
“It’s only a person who was present at the place where a corpse is buried, that can properly exhume from the head”. ~African Proverb.
On the other hand, we owe a great debt of gratitude to the unaligned Rivers electorate and those who considered President Tinubu’s track record and found him suitable for election. Their votes counted.
Otherwise, what could a fractured APC in Rivers State have done to even secure a mere 10% of the total number of votes cast for their Presidential candidate in Rivers State at the February 25, 2023 General Election?. Absolutely nothing.
Finally, we advise this group to show remorse, repent, and seek forgiveness and be re~baptised into the APC commission. The primitive resort to Blackmail, coercion, insults, abuse, musing or any other uncivilized and degenerate approaches will woefully fail.
Signed:
Chief Tony C Okocha KSC DSSRS JP
Leader, Renewed Hope Agenda/Mainstream APC Rivers State.
Mr. Gbaarabe Tombari Smith
Secretary, Renewed Hope Agenda/Mainstream APC Rivers State.
Above for your information:
Cc:
- His Excellency,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. - His Excellency,
Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON
Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Rock Presidential Villa,
Abuja. - His Excellency,
Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON
Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly,
National Assembly Complex,
Three-Arm Zone,
Abuja. - The Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, CFR,
Speaker, House of Representatives and Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly,
National Assembly Complex,
Three-Arm Zone,
Abuja. - His Excellency,
Senator George Akume, CON,
Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
The Presidency,
Abuja. - The Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, CFR
Chief of Staff to the President,
Aso Rock Presidential Villa,
Abuja. - Hon. Wale Edun, Honourable Minister for Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy,
Federal Ministry of Finance,
Federal Secretariat Complex,
Abuja. - His Excellency,
Atiku Bagudu, CON
Honourable Minister for Budget and Economic Planning,
Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning,
Federal Secretariat Complex,
Abuja. - His Excellency,
Alhaji Mohammed Badaru,
Honourable Minister of Defence,
Defence House,
Abuja. - Hon. Abubakar Kyar,
Honourable Minister for Agriculture and Food Security,
Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
Federal Secretariat Complex,
Abuja. - Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru,
National Secretary,
All Progressives Congress,
Buhari House,
40 Blantyre Street,
Wuse 2, Abuja. - His Excellency, Chief Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike CON.
Honourable Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Federal Capital Territory Administration
Kapital Street, Off Obafemi Awolowo Street, Garki Area 11, P.M.B. 25, Garki, Abuja - Hon. Omiete Eferebo
Acting Chairman,
APC, Rivers State.
Signed:
Chief Tony C Okocha KSC DSSRS JP
Leader, Renewed Hope Agenda/Mainstream APC Rivers State.
Mr. Gbaarabe Tombari Smith
Secretary, Renewed Hope Agenda/Mainstream APC Rivers State.