Okorocha Backs Sani Bello Led Caretaker Committee
By Zakaa Lazarus
The Senator representing Imo West Senatorial district and also presidential aspirant under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Rochas Okorocha has expressed support for the Governor Sani Bello led acting chairman of the All Progressive Congress Party.
Sen. Okorocha while reacting to questions from newsmen on Wednesday at the party Secretariat in Abuja noted that he showed up to encourage the new leadership led by Governor Sani Bello and to also give his advice.
According to him, APC remains the people’s party and if “we hold this convention on the 26th, it will restore the confidence of the people in this party”.
According to Okorocha, the coalition of the various groups which formed the APC in 2015 has different disparate stakeholders who must be satisfied regarding the zoning of various elective positions.
This, amongst other issues, will be redressed in the upcoming national convention of the party, Okorocha clarified.
In his words “I can see light now at the end of the tunnel. I am reassured than ever that this convention will take place and it will be free and fair given the leadership in place by Mr President. What needs to be done is to give every member of the party a sense of belonging.
“Not forgetting the founding fathers and the parties that came together to form the APC. One is the CPC; the ACN led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; APGA led by Rochas Okorocha and ANPP led by Yari, Shettima, Onu and a host of them and not forgetting the new PDP”. He quarried
He stated that If these people are carried along and the governors are recognized as the leaders of the party “we shall have a peaceful convention”.
The Presidential Aspirant urged party members to as a matter of urgency respect the rule of law and obey court orders. When this is done “we shall give everyone a sense of belonging”.
Asked about recent happening in Imo state, the former governor who clearly acknowledge the leadership Imo state led by Gov. Hope Uzodinma
“First, let me state clearly that their is a leadership in Imo state. That’s not in doubt, but their is also a court judgement which invalidated the party executives appointed in the state. We have a state where court judgements are trashed and not respected”. He said
Asked about his reaction to the court judgement sacking Ebonyi state governor yesterday and are if he is privy to a leadership change by the President or not,
Okorocha said every pronouncement by the courts should be obeyed unless subjected to a superior court for appeal.
According to him, where there is an appeal to a superior court on any matter, the lower court ceases to have authority over the matter. Nobody in this country should say he will not obey any court order. Section 287 of our constitution makes it clear that ‘every institution and organ of government should be obeyed but thank God for the ruling party, it has respect for the rule of law.
Asked if the Ebonyi state Governor should vacate his position and what he meant coming to encourage the leadership, he said that, it is assumed that the court order no matter what form and shape it takes must be obeyed.”but secondly you have an opening to go to the Court of Appeals to allow the superior court suspend the judgement of the lower court. So you have obeyed if you tell the superior court to give you another hearing on the matter. It does not mean you have not obeyed the lower court but you give the superior court to re-hear the matter”.
He reiterated that, encouragement means solidarity. “To tell them, go ahead and conduct March 26 convention”. It will help to restore confidence in the party and to remind them that those who are the founding members and pillars of the party such as APGA, ACN, ANPP and CPC must be carried along in the convention.
“If you could recall, what gave us success over PDP was that we treated these four parties as a family. It will be wrong to leave someone like Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has committed so much to the development of this party out of the running of the party, the same for myself, CPC, ANPP and the new PDP and the governors as the pillars of the party as we plan for the convention.
“We want to have a people’s convention, if you recall their were insinuations that the March convention will not hold but as it is now, all are convinced that the convention will hold”. He assured
