Rivers: New Problems For Pro-Wike Lawmakers As APC Gives Fresh Orders

The Rivers State lawmakers who defected to the APC have new problems to contend with following the emergence of Emeka Beke as the new chairman of the APC in Rivers State.

The embattled 27 lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly who last December defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC have been drawn into a new crisis arising from the court judgment affirming Emeka Beke as the legal chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the APC.

In a bold move, Beke has recognized them as APC members, walking away from the obfuscation by the sacked caretaker chairman, Tony Okocha who reportedly while warmly relating with them covered them by not openly associating with them as APC members.

However, unlike Okocha, Beke has recognized the vacancy in their seats as a result of the defection as he has told them to prepare for the primary election to select the party’s candidates to contest the empty seats in the State House of Assembly.  

GWG.ng reports that the standing of the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly was vitiated by the courts upon interpretation of Section 68 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. Since the complexity of the issue arose, the Okocha leadership had sought to cover them while Governor Simi Fubara on his part denied them recognition saying that they did not exist.

Complicating the legal grounds for the 27 lawmakers who are aligned to FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, the reinstated chairman of the APC, Beke while recognizing them as members of the party, however, urged them to prepare for election to fill the vacancy in their seats arising from the defection.

Beke who spoke in an interview on Arise News Television monitored by GWG.ng said:

“The whole world watched them come into the party, they are members of the party and I am going to invite them for the meeting on Thursday. They are members of the party.

“When it comes to the issue of election, they will go through the process of buying forms, going through the process of winning nomination and going for the election and that is another phase all together and it depends on who and who wants to run the election as members of our party.

“Tickets is not going to be given to you freely, you must go through the process where you will go to your ward and do all the necessary things and when you win the primaries you can contest the election,” Beke said in a tone different from his predecessor, Okocha who recognized the lawmakers as incumbent members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

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