…Wike’s pointman, Tony Okocha, rallies APC 23 LGA candidates
Preparations for the conduct of the controversy-soaked Rivers State Local Government Elections, slated for August 30, 2025, went up a notch on August 14, 2025 as the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) officially kicked off campaigns for the elections.
The state election umpire, Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) had insisted on holding the polls, despite threats of legal action against its conduct, with August 9, 2025 fixed for start of campaigns by the political parties and their candidates.
Tony Okocha, state chairman of the APC, while addressing a crowd, which claimed, to have numbered over a hundred thousand, said that the party was committed to winning the 23 chairmanship positions and councillorship positions in the 319 wards of the state.
Okocha, who commended his party members for standing united in the bid to lift the APC onto a place of pride in Rivers politics, said, “What we are doing (today) is a ritual because every system has its processes.
“A lot of you have been itching to go to the field and begin to campaign. Now, as soon as this is consummated, you are free to go to all the nooks and crannies of the 23 local government areas and the 319 wards and campaign,” he said.
Okocha, who had at the RSIEC stakeholders meeting earlier in the month, insisted that APC would participate in the council polls, repeated his earlier comment that the local council poll conducted on October 5, 2024 was flawed.
He told the gathering on Thursday that, “You will recall that some time ago, there was something that was a charade. APC said we were not going to participate, and we didn’t participate. We assured them that it will go to no issue. It will not work. Did it work? No!
“Today, we are bold, we are happy, we are excited to stand before you to tell you that because the processes are right, the processes put in place by RISEC are right we are here to support, to follow those processes. Our people have been screened, our people have been declared candidates as chairmen and the councillors.
“Let me seize this opportunity again to congratulate my friends, the chairmen-elect and their deputies. I also congratulate the councillors-elect and their deputies. The primaries were seamless. You didn’t hear anybody fight? Because we are an organized political party, we are saying to you, that everything is put in place.
“Now, we are not just going to test the waters. APC, we are not going to test the waters on the 30th of August. We are going to contest elections and win the elections. We are going there to contest this election to win the twenty-three local government areas and to win the 319 wards in Rivers State,” Okocha said.
He alluded to “a marriage of politicians in Rivers State, weaved together by a son of the soil. A politician of no mean repute. A prodigious politician that is well known in Nigeria. That gentleman has been able to win the election.
“That gentleman has been able to weave together all politicians, progressive ones for that matter, together under the umbrella, not the PDP umbrella, under the umbrella of Renewed Hope 2025,” he said.
Okocha also said that despite this marriage, the APC will go to the polls to win the chairmanship and councillorship positions in all the local government areas of the state.
Magnus Ngei Abe, senator that represented Rivers South East, who also represented Victory Giadom, APC’s National Vice Chairman (South South), noted the unity and cohesion which had been achieved in the party under the leadership of Tony Okocha, while declaring that any other persons claiming to be leaders of the party in the state are doing so illegally.
Abe said, “Rivers State is united. We are coming together as one, and everybody who has the interest of Rivers State is on board. Anybody who is not on board, going around the television stations to declare themselves as leaders of this party are wasting their time
“We are together and we are moving. Everybody in Rivers State is welcome to join the APC. Let us work together with the current chairman to deliver the dividends of democracy to the grassroots,” he said.
The chairmanship candidates were noticeably paired with female deputy vice chairmanship candidates.
Maureen Tamuno, former Nigerian High Commissioner to Jamaica, Belize Haiti and the Dominican Republic, hailed the push to integrate women into political and governance structures.
She said: “The women of Rivers State are united in one voice. We are committed to the fear of God that has brought about the unity and the peace that we enjoy today in Rivers State.
“We want to assure you that as women that are grassroots-rooted, when it is time, we will definitely deliver the dividends of democracy. So that at the end of the day, Rivers State will begin to enjoy the Renewed Hope of Mr. President,” she said.
