Senator Rochas Okorocha has advised the new leadership of the All Progressives Congress(APC) to ensure that every member, particularly the founding members and legacy parties, are given a sense of belonging in order to make a success of the March 26 convention.
He said this while expressing confidence in the leadership of Governor Bello Abubakar of Niger State who emerged Acting Chairman of the party albeit in controversial circumstances, replacing the former Chairman of the Caretaker and Emergency Convention Planning Commitee, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.
The senator who recently declared his presidential ambition said, “I’m here to encourage the new leadership and give my advice. 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.”
“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.
“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 (put) in place by Mr President”, Okorocha said.
” 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 added.
Explaining further, Okorocha stated, ” 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.
“If these people are carried along and the governors are recognized as the leaders of the party we shall have a peaceful convention”, he stressed.
“Again, this party 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.
Speaking on the state of the party in his home state, Imo State, he said, “first, let me state clearly that there is a leadership in Imo state. That’s not in doubt, but there 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.
On the court judgement which sacked Ebonyi state governor on Tuesday, Okorocha said,” Every pronouncement by the courts should be obeyed unless subjected to a superior court for appeal. In other words, 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.
Prodded further on whether the Ebonyi State Governor ought to vacate his office by reason of the court order, Okorocha responded thus:
“First, 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.