Embattled Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara’s days of political pardon may still be far from being achieved, as the ruling party is not ready to extricate him of the ‘crimes’ he has committed.
Political pundits were of the belief that Fubara’s recent moves, occasioned by his visits to President Bola Tinubu and his estranged political God Father, Nyesom Wike were designed to accelerate his pardon and subsequent return to power.
However, the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday said that suspended Governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara’s sins will not be forgiven if he decides to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling APC.
Chairman of the party in the state, Sir Tony Okocha, who stated this in a chat with newsmen yesterday at the APN National Secretariat in Abuja, explained that the party is not a dumping ground for political sinners.
Okocha was responding to questions on the political implications of Fubara’s recent Sallah homage to President Bola Tinubu in Lagos.
According to him, Fubara’s suspension and the declaration of a state of emergency was about his misdemeanour and had no political undertones.
He said; “If Fubara decides to join the APC, it has nothing to do with the state of emergency in Rivers state. His sins cannot be forgiven because he came to our party.
“You will jump into APC today and your sins are forgiven? That cannot be true. It won’t work that way. Then, it would have made APC as a dumping ground for people who commit misdemeanor and believe that by and large we will come for reconciliation. No. It is not true. He has not spoken to me. He will enter the party through the door not the window. Not only him, there are procedures for defection to another party and if he claims to be a politician, he would know that all politics is local, he would try and defect in his ward. From there it will come to us and my ward chairmen. I have asked, nobody brought any information about him entering APC”.
Asked whether he was worried about Fubara’s meeting with the president, Okocha said the APC had nothing to be worried about.
“How can I be worried that somebody visited my president? Don’t forget it was also the season of Sallah. Yesterday, I read somewhere that the former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Osoba paid Sallah homage and I don’t know whether you also saw the President in the company of Chief EN Wike. So we cannot be worried, we cannot gag the President to say you will see Mr A, you will not see Mr B. Perhaps, if I had made an application to see Mr President, I would have been there with my team”, he said.
Okocha also dismissed reports of a possible reconciliatory moves being embarked on by Gov. Fubara, saying there was nothing like that.
Okocha said; “I am not a prophet of doom. I can only say to you with the benefit of knowledge that I am not aware of any reconciliatory move. No reconciliation is going on, is it going to talk to Mr President? But Mr President has said go and make peace. No attempt at that. I am not aware of any reconciliatory moves by Fubara and his team”.