The sacked chairman of the All Progressives Congress Caretaker Committee in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has rubbished the recent #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest, describing it as a riot.
Okocha spoke shortly after he led a pro-Tinubu support rally under the auspices of Coalition of Renewed Hope Family in Rivers State’ in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
The rally saw Okocha leading youths who displayed placards with inscriptions in support of Tinubu from the Polo Club in GRA to Aba Road, down to Isaac Boro Park, Bank Road, Moscow Road, and terminated at the Port Harcourt Polo Club, where he addressed the gathering.
The march caused a slight traffic jam at some routes in the metropolis as vehicles made detours and diverted to get to their respective destinations.
Recall that Okocha, who following the sacking of his seven man CTC by a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt which reinstated Chief Emeka Beke, a loyalist of the former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, had at a news briefing on Monday rejected the judgment delivered by Justice Sika Aprioku, saying the party is heading for appeal.
Addressing the gathering, he said, “The crowd you see here at their own volition and freeness of heart came in this large numbers, and you saw how peaceful the procession was. This is what we call a protest.
“We are marching for Mr President. We want to clean the rot that was typical from August 1 to August 10. We imagine that in Rivers State, you all know you’re from here. Rivers State has never been an epicentre for any protest or demonstrations.
“I was very active in the #Endsars protest. Did you see the SARS protest in Rivers State being as profuse and excruciating as what you saw?
“So there must be a reason. That reason is the fact that the man who funded, the man who sponsored, the man who held midnight meetings with youths, I refused to call them hoodlums, is the only person that benefited from the 10 days of inactivity in Nigeria, especially in Rivers State.”
He took a swipe at the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for offering to give protesters money for bread while, according to him, his counterparts were meeting people from different walks of life and stakeholders to find solutions to pressing issues.
Okocha said, “And to also tell you, you saw when the Governor said that he would give them something for pure water and bread.
“When other governors in other states are circumspect. When governors in other states are busy meeting with all manner and strata of people in their states, our own governor drives freely to commission, I hear, or to attend the burial of somebody’s mother in Khana.
Continuing, Okocha called for patience, saying, “We believe that Rome was not built in a day. All that Mr. President is doing are futuristic programmes. The President has recognised the fact of what education can do for the people.”
