A faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, led by Emeka Beke, has accused Tony Okocha of attempting to force former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, out of the party.
According to the faction’s spokesman, Darlington Nwauju, Okocha’s repeated attacks on Amaechi are a deliberate effort to alienate the former minister from the party he played a key role in building.
"Why has Amaechi’s name become the only currency that Tony Okocha and his group can use for their political trade?" Nwauju questioned. "The only reason Okocha is creating division within the APC is to frustrate the original stakeholders, like Amaechi, and push him out of the party in Rivers State."
Okocha, on the other hand, has dismissed these allegations, describing Amaechi as a failed politician who, according to him, did not attract any significant project to Rivers State or the South-South region during his tenure as Minister.
However, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, an APC chieftain and former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New PDP, refuted Okocha’s claims, stating that Amaechi played a crucial role in influencing over 15 major projects in the South-South and facilitated numerous appointments for people from the region in Federal Government agencies.
Eze highlighted some of Amaechi’s contributions, including his role in the construction of the 39km Bonny-Bodo Road, which features two creek bridges and a bridge over the Opobo Channel, at a cost of ₦120 billion. He compared the project’s significance to the Second Niger Bridge, dismissing Okocha’s assertions as misleading.
In response to Okocha’s criticism of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Eze argued that such remarks only expose a lack of understanding of governance. He insisted that attacking others to gain political relevance is a tactic that should be questioned by any reasonable person.
