Chief Tony Okocha, the newly appointed chairman of the APC’s Caretaker Committee for Rivers State, has refuted rumors that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu strategically gave Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), control over the party’s Rivers State structure.

Okocha revealed the information on Monday during a live radio broadcast in the state capital of Port Harcourt. He claimed that anybody who made these hints were only being economical with the truth.

He claims that since joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at its inception, Wike has never expressed interest in joining another party or abandoning the organization he worked so hard to build when others left it to perish.

When it comes to an alliance, Okocha declared, “I sided with Nyesom Wike and I’m still siding with him.” The difficulty of giving Nyesom Wike control of the party is that, for screaming out loud, he is not an APC member and is well-known to be a devoted founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He has repeatedly bragged about how much the PDP has helped him and how he wasn’t in a rush to quit the party. He hasn’t discussed it with me or anyone else, so I’m not aware of it.

He wouldn’t, of course, keep such a decision a secret from Nigerians. Nigerians will be informed if Wike decides to leave the PDP at any point and join another political party.

He is a committed supporter of the Peoples Democratic Party as of right now. Anyone who believes that the President is giving a PDP member control over the APC would be missing the mark.

Speaking further, Okocha, who is also the representative of Rivers State on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), commended the national leadership of the party.

“I am not alone in the business. Like I assured the national chairman, I don’t know how it happened, but I commended their wisdom in assembling eggheads and people who have been in party politics for a long time, builders, people who are worried, people who are agitated, people who want the party, APC to grow from strength to strength.

“That is what they assembled and fortunately, I am the chairman of that group. I think with the experience we have garnered over time, we will put all of these together; put them in one straight jacket and the party will move, Okocha said.