By Emeka Amaefula
APC RIVERS STATE LEADERSHIP AND RECOGNITION BY PRESIDENT -ELECT-TONY OKOCHA BATTLES SENATOR MAGNUS ABE
There is ongoing trouble over the control of Rivers state chapter of All Progressives Congress-APC with the 2023 General elections being over but its aftermath reverberates across the leadership of All Progressives Congress, the once vibrant opposition political party in Rivers state. While the 2015 to 2023 eight years Government led by His Excellency Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike held sway the opposition political parties got less attention as the masses tuned in to the programmes of action of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers state. Two individuals who featured prominently in the crises in APC Rivers state chapter were Senator Magnus Abe and Chief Tony Okocha who never agreed with the Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi led the mainstream All Progressives Congress in Rivers state. The duo Abe and Okocha formed FREEDOM House APC Faction with senator Magnus Abe as the leader while the former Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi, Chief Tony Okocha emerged as the Coordinator of activities at Freedom House. With the 2019 Governorship election in Rivers state haven been torpedoed by the Supreme Court of Nigeria consent Judgment which stopped APC in Rivers state from sponsoring candidates in the 2019 General elections into Rivers state House of assembly, Federal House of representatives, Senate and Governorship election, the morale of members of APC for the past 8-years have been very low and beaten by the lack of accruable from holding public offices at the state levels, Local Government and Ward Council levels.
With the 2023 General elections activities separating all the major players in the All Progressives Congress-APC in Rivers state due to the fact Senator Magnus Abe pursued his gubernatorial election by defecting to Social democratic Party-SDP and Chief Tony Okocha remaining with the peripheral group of APC not recognized by Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who also contested for the APC Presidential Primary election against Bola Ahmed Tinubu the eventual winner who became candidate of APC in the 2023 Presidential election and winner of the just concluded election as President of Nigeria come May 29th, 2023.
Before the electoral success of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Tony Okocha has been very vibrant in supporting BAT instead of his fellow Ikwerre ethnic nationality Presidential election aspirant Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. He aligned forces with the leader of G-5 Governors group of 5 State Governors who opposed the presidential candidate of PDP Atiku Abubakar who they accused usurped the Southern Nigeria turn to be President of Nigeria in 2023 while holding the National Chairmanship position of the PDP. True to their avowed threat not to support Atiku Abubakar G-5 Governors it was observed contributed immensely in the success of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in their states of control except in the South Eastern states where Labour Party Presidential candidate Peter Obi swept the Polls with electoral victory. In Rivers state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made a decisive victory which if not due to the political sagacity of the incumbent Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, Labour Party would have made a clean sweep of Votes at the polls due to large number of Supporters of Peter Obi living in Rivers state.
Given the formation of a new Government to be led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, politicians across Nigeria are in the political trenches lobbying for positions and recognition and Rivers state APC is one political party that’s lacks moral obligation to request for political office positions as the leader of the party in the state Amaechi is alleged not o have positively worked for the victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s success in the February 25th,2023 Presidential election. It is the outcome of the election that now emboldens Chief Tony Okocha to demand for reward to his hard work of marketing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Rivers state when every other APC prominent member in Rivers state shunned him for their most preferred presidential candidates. Here Senator Magnus Abe is alleged to be warming his way back to recognition for political appointment in the incoming Government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu while Chief Tony Okocha is feeling that this political moves by Distinguished Senator Abe in so many ways will truncate his chances of being nationally recognition for an office. Thus this has led to war of words between once best political friends who sat together and plotted how to rejig Rivers state APC but now on opposing camps and political divides for personal interests.
In a reaction to political jabs thrown to Tony Okocha by Senator Abe while he appeared in Arise Tv Program and a privately-owned Radio station in Rivers state anchored by Segun Owolabi, Senator Abe alluded a statement that angered Tony Okocha over him winning some Polling Units in Wike’s RumuIgbo community in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area where Tony Okocha is supposed to control some wards. In response to the news that Senator Abe has been showing interest and lobbying for a political position in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s incoming Government, Chief Tony Okocha wrote thus, “Dear compatriots, you have nothing to be afraid or scared or worried about. Tinubu is elected as President of Nigeria not President of APC. Any Nigerian irrespective of the Party the one belongs or voted for, could have gone out to join in the heroic welcome of the President-Elect back to Nigeria.
In this case, Senator Magnus Abe, the Rivers State Governorship Candidate of the Social Democratic Party, was so excited to join. What does it take away?
Should the President-Elect, a core democrat and wisdom bank, have refused to answer to his greetings? Afterall, some who thronged out to the airport and even down to the residence of the President Elect, may have actually gone to confirm their hunch, that the President-Elect, is medically unfit so they know how to amplify it.
Who in Nigeria is unaware of how APC won the Presidential Election in Rivers State?
Didn’t Magnus himself, reveal during his submissions on National Television, that Rivers State wasn’t in the bag in the calculation of States where APC, Tinubu will win, when he was a member of the Strategy Committee?
Was it not one of the hopeless reasons why he decamped to the SDP.?.
Is Magnus no longer a Party man? Is he declaring that he voted against his Party’s Presidential Candidate?
Did he say so?
After he decamped to the SDP to succeed and in pursuit of his ambition, can he or anyone for that matter, show a clip of Magnus Abe, (The Traditional and New Media user) campaigning for Tinubu’s Presidency?
Can we see even a covert or subterranean attempt in that direction?
Could anyone see Magnus Abe at the APC/Tinubu Presidential Campaign Rally held in Rivers State on the 15th of January, 2023?
Did he contribute a dime in the planning or execution however?
Is it not same thing eye-service he did on the 15th of January, 2023, when he stealthily went to the Port Harcourt International Airport, to greet Tinubu who arrived Rivers State for Campaign, but was too afraid and ashamed to join him to the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, venue for the APC Presidential Campaign?
What was that alliance that necessitated the sacrifice of Mr Salvation Moses, who cruised to victory for a Khana LGA State Constituency Candidate of the SDP, for Rivers State House of Assembly, in favour of the Candidate of Senator Lee Maeba, DG of the PDP Presidential Campaign in Rivers State?
What is the result from Ward 16, Bera, Gokana LGA? ~Magnus Abe’s Ward? What is that contribution howsoever, to the victory of Tinubu in Rivers State?
Can Magnus Abe, the self-acclaimed Tinubu’s man Friday and so loved by his village, show the Presidential Election result in his own polling unit?. (In fact, I task Magnus Abe to this).
When did Magnus Abe and his Hoodwinked cheerleaders start to agree that Governor Wike’s percent support and sponsorship of the APC Rivers, was the game-changer? Just when?
Didn’t they unleash attacks against us who publicly thanked Governor Wike for his role in securing the Victory of Tinubu in Rivers State and called him the Enigma and Jinx-breaker?
Is it not true that the reason why Magnus Abe and his handful of supporters mischievously dubbed some of us as Betrayals, was our deft resolve to not join him to port to the SDP and by so doing, drop our support for Tinubu? What else?
I ask: was there any crisis in SDP, why Magnus Abe, the Candidate of SDP for the Governorship of Rivers State, wouldn’t campaign and vote for his party? Is the Presidential Candidate of his party aware that Magnus would not vote for him? Those who wouldn’t vote for their Parties’ Candidates, didn’t hide under the bushels. The G5 Governors and Amaechi are cases in point.
Has Magnus Abe stopped discrediting INEC over the conduct of Elections in Rivers State?
Is he of the conviction that the Presidential and National Assembly Elections held on the 25th of February, 2023, in Rivers State, were credible?
How many seats did his fringe Party (SDP) win. So, The Presidential/National Assembly Elections in Rivers State, were credible even though Magnus Abe and his SDP, lost all seats spectacularly, and the one of 18th March, 2023, (Governorship/House of Assembly) wherein he participated as Candidate, a sham according to him?I don’t get this incoherent logic at all. Perhaps anyone can help me out of this bewilderment.
Mr President-Elect is a rare gem. He is an astute and consummate Political institution. He is noted for rewarding hard work and loyalty. He is not a Political neophyte.
He is not carried away by sycophancy and/or deceptive antics howsoever couched.
If we all defected to the SDP as they tried so hard even through blackmail to get us sign in, there wouldn’t have been APC let alone her victory in Rivers State.
I also will pause to ask:
Was it Tinubu that directed Magnus Abe to defect to the SDP and run in the election against his Party APC? It is not a controvertible fact that Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his supporters, had publicly announced support for HE, Atiku Abubakar and his PDP and vigorously campaigned and voted for him.
We note in summary as follows those plotting to harvest where they didn’t sow, through grandstanding and/or any other uncanny means, should be wary of the implications of altering natural justice and that it is preposterous to approbate and reprobate at the same time. The SDP in Rivers State is already at the Tribunal, seeking to upturn our electoral return. One wonders why the deceptive and hypocritical hob-nob that we are not against anyone seeking benefits from the reward of hard~ work and loyalty. What we will vehemently harp against, is the penchant to shunt.
Like Chinua Achebe puts in his book Things Fall Apart… ” The rain will first drop on those standing before those squatting”. In the hierarchy of benefits, it is Governor Wike first (He who pays the Piper, dictates the tune). Thereafter, APC members who braved up from start to finish, the Tinubu’s Presidency, not minding the name-calling and deprivations.
Those who gambled out and the non-aligned can now take their tunes. We are not directing but only reiterating the justice of the matter.”
If you think that Senator Magnus Abe will lie low and allow his political opportunity to snip away from him, wait until the end of 2023 when the new Government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must have been completed.
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