The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are both yet to publicly react to rigging admissions Tony Okocha, the embattled Rivers State All Progressives Congress chairman, made on Thursday.

FIJ toured the social media pages of these agencies and checked for their most recent press statements, but found none on Okocha as of press time.

Okocha served as Chief of Staff to Amaechi from 2007 to 2015.

The politician made an appearance on a Channels TV programme on Thursday evening. During the interview, he admitted to rigging local council elections during the tenure of former Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Okocha argued he deserved credit for confessing, saying: “On the issue of whether I rigged the election, I did not hide it. I should be praised as a whistleblower.”

He argued that his actions were in the past, and he could not be punished for them.

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“If you were an armed robber yesterday, and today you came to confess that you stole something somewhere yesterday. Are you saying that the law will now take a retroactive effect? The answer is no,” he said.

“When you have an idea of a thing and you see the other person also wants to use the tactics that you already know, you will shout. That is the reason why we went to court.”

On August 12, Justice Sika Aprioku of the Port Harcourt High Court sacked Okocha as chairman and reinstated formerly ousted chairman Emeka Beke.

Beke was also in Thursday’s interview. Referring to him, Okocha said, “All of us were together, including Emeka Beke.”

However, Beke refuted the claims, saying: “I did not follow you to the election. I did not partake in any election whatsoever.

“When you wake up and confess and you want to put me there, I am not part of that. You rigged the election and we are going to ask the police to arrest you that you rigged the election.”

On Friday morning, FIJ called Muyiwa Adejobi, the NPF spokesman, but he did not answer the calls. FIJ also sent text messages to him, but as of press time, he had not responded.