Tony Okocha, the Caretaker Committee chairman of the APC in Rivers State, has spoken about the controversy over the purported defection of 27 Rivers State lawmakers from the PDP to the APC.
In a video shared by Channels TV, Okocha stated that Martin Amaewhule, the embattled Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly, and the other lawmakers loyal to his faction are not officially registered members of the APC. He said their names are not in the APC's membership register. He said the APC was trying to attract these lawmakers to join their party because they seemed to be struggling in the PDP.
In Okocha's words: "The truth is that their names are not in our register, we were wooing them, it is our duty to woo people into the APC and we were wooing them to join us. We were not saying they are members of our party. We were wooing them to come because they seemed to be hopeless and helpless in the party that produced them"
Watch the video from 20:58