The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, yesterday, inaugurated the River State Caretaker Committee.
Recall that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party on Wednesday dissolved the Rivers State Executives of the party at all levels.
The members of the committee are: Chief Tony Okocha, who will serve as Chairman, while Chief Eric Nwibani will serve as the Secretary.
Other members of the committee are: Hon. Chibuike Ikenga, Prince Stephen Abolo, Hon. Silvester Vidin, Senibo Dan-Jumbo and Miss Darling Amadi.
Addressing the committee members, Ganduje noted that since 2015 APC had been suffering setbacks as a result of intra-party conflict and litigations which led to the defeat of the party in the state.
His words: “So this new National Working Committee of our great party, has examined every issue about the party, both at the national level and at individual state levels. And decided to reform the party and this is not possible until we examine the leadership in our respective states.
“There is no doubt we have members who have been in APC since its creation. Some have left the party, some prominent party members left the party and even contested in another political fight and they do not wish to come back. Some of the original party members also followed another faction, they too they’re ready to come back.”
Ganduje added that there were newcomers from other parties who would like to come into the party, saying there was no time to rejig the leadership of the party but now.
He noted: “We have confidence in you, and we expect you to involve yourselves because as part of the reform system, we have introduced electronic registration of our members. We request you to pay attention to the electronic registration of our members and I want you to spearhead that exercise.”
The chairman urged the committee to constitute various committees so that you can recruit more people into the party.
According to him, “We expect you to provide an enabling environment so that congresses could be conducted for the emergence of leadership at the ward level, local government level, state level and even senatorial level. We expect you to put more life into this party, there is no discrimination, do not bother yourself about factions because you are brothers for unity, and regard yourself as APC brothers.”
Ganduje further urged the committee to make history by building a strong foundation for the party.
On his part, the leader of APC Caretaker Committee, Okocha, assured that the committee would assemble eggheads, good party builders, and ardent party supporters to build a formidable party.
He noted: “We are game for the assignment and the charges that our great chairman of the party has handed down to us. It is a bit painful that as members of the political party in a particular state as important as Rivers State, we have learnt our lessons.
“We told the chairman that we need to engage and re-engage our people. We are going to perpetuate that.
Also, Spokesperson for APC Rivers, Chibike Ikenga, said they were interested in peace and consensus building.
He added: “As we are, we do not want to go into sensitive issues that need to be addressed by the larger groups of stakeholders and leaders of the party. But when we get to the bridge we will cross it. Rotimi Amaechi is the leader of the party. Other leaders of the party also are people who have participated to get the party to where it is today.
“Chief Nyesom Wike is an illustrious son of Rivers State but not a member of APC. He is a member of PDP. But if tomorrow he wants to join the APC we cannot stop anybody. As far as he wants to join others we will welcome them.”
