Amaechi, Abe and Rivers APC’s unending crisis

BY BISI OLANIYI

There is no end in sight to the crisis rocking the Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC), which is still licking the wounds of electoral defeat in the last general elections. The two key leaders, Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe, have refused to sheathe their swords. Southsouth Bureau Chief BISI OLANIYI reports

The protracted rift between Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe has remained unresolved. Reconciliation has broken down between the two camps. The division has continued to take its toll on the crisis ridden All Progressives Congress APC in Rivers State.

Amaechi and Abe were friends.

The governor appointed Abe as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG).

In 2011, Abe represented of Rivers Southeast Senatorial District on PDP platform, while he showed interest in taking over from Amaechi in 2015 on the APC platform, but the former member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, now the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), emerged as the governorship standard bearer of APC. He “lost” to Chief Nyesom Wike of the PDP. Abe returned to the Senate.

Ahead of the 2019 primary and elections, Abe alleged that many of his supporters were disenfranchised during Rivers APC’s ward, local government and state congresses. He challenged the development at the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt.

At the peak of the crisis, the then Deputy Chairman of APC in Rivers, Chief Peter Odike, joined Abe, along with some stalwarts of the party, thereby forming a parallel APC, with the factional secretariat at Waterlines Bus Stop on Aba Road, Port Harcourt. Odike became the factional Chairman, with Ojukaye Flag-Amachree emerging as the duly-recognised Chairman.

The national leadership of APC approved indirect primary for the party in Rivers, which led to the emergence of Pastor Tonye Cole as the governorship candidate, but Abe’s faction opted for direct primary, with Abe becoming the standard bearer.

The courts, however, nullified all the congresses and primaries. Rivers APC did not have candidates for the 2019 elections, thereby allowing the PDP candidates to have a field day, without strong challengers.

Amaechi, while speaking at a reception in Abuja, shortly after his second ministerial inauguration, hinted that the national leadership would soon organise fresh congresses in the state

.Abe, while speaking at his residence in Port Harcourt, when members of the APC Visionary Media Team visited him, described the transportation minister’s hint as unacceptable. Amaechi, through his media office, wondered why the senator had started showing early signs of apprehension.

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Amaechi’s media office said: “Amaechi announced to his teeming supporters during the reception in Abuja that followed his inauguration as a second-term minister that they (the supporters) should begin to prepare for congresses, as part of rebuilding and repositioning the APC in Rivers State.

“Amaechi expressed surprise that Senator Abe could resort to unguarded language to express his indisposition and fear for congresses, even when he (Amaechi) did not give date and time of congresses to his supporters. The transportation minister did not give his supporters any date and time for the congresses, being the responsibility of the national secretariat of APC.

“Senator Abe has no reason to be afraid of congresses. He should tell his supporters to also prepare for congresses, since he says he is very popular. A popular politician should be very happy anytime congresses are on the table.”

Amaechi’s media office also disclosed that the transportation minister declined to respond to sundry comments made by Abe, declaring that such remarks were obvious signs of frustration on the former senator’s part.

Abe, while addressing his supporters in Port Harcourt, noted that Amaechi announced to his supporters that there would be congresses in Rivers APC, without taking cognisance of the existing judicial pronouncements on the matter and the need for consultation, as it affects the interest of other party members.

The senator stated that the minister for transportation, rather than concentrate on his job in Abuja, was creating another tension and crisis in the APC, thereby demonstrating the same unruly behaviour that brought the party in Rivers to a fiasco.

He urged Amaechi to demonstrate his sincerity in rebuilding Rivers APC, by consulting other members of the party and showing respect for the rights and feelings of all stakeholders.

Abe, who described himself as an advocate of internal democracy and justice, pleaded with APC members to be resolute and committed to the growth of the party.

He said peace, inclusiveness, progress and the commitment of members to move the party forward were needed.

Abe said: “Look at the state of our party here today in Rivers State, yet the Minister for Transportation, on assumption of office, the first thing he did was to announce congresses in Rivers State and I ask myself, this was the same kind of behaviour that led the party to where it is.

“Everybody in Nigeria knows that the origin of the crisis in Rivers APC was from the congresses and how the congresses were handled. There are extant judicial pronouncements on the last congresses, which the party was misled to ignore and we have all kept quiet, in the hope that by keeping quiet, we will create room for resolution of some of these challenges, so that the party can move forward.

“Instead, Amaechi became more brazen in his challenge to the rights, feelings and interests of others within the same political party. How do we do that and expect to make progress?

“What kind of congresses? Is he (Amaechi) the National Chairman of APC? Is he the National Working Committee (NWC)? Is he the court? What gives him the power to come and announce congresses on the day he was inaugurated as a minister?

“Rather than address the issues of his ministry, the first thing he (Amaechi) could do was to reopen the sorest point in the hearts of members of the party. It is on that basis that party members are deprived of all rights and benefits in the party we all suffered to build. Is that how to grow a political family? Is that how to grow politics? We will not accept the congresses.”

The senator also stated that he and his supporters had been keeping quiet, out of respect for the APC and out of understanding. He said without justice, there could be no peace and without peace, there could be no progress.

Abe added: “We must try as much as possible to be instruments of peace, unity, and progress within the APC.

“The Minister for Transportation cannot sit in his office and make pronouncement on a matter in which he and many other people have interest. People have gone to court, people have fought for their rights in the congresses and the same thing that he did before, by creating confusion in the first place, he is determined to continue to do it, because he wants to prove to the world that he is a conqueror. Nobody can conquer Rivers people.

“If you want the support of Rivers people, ask for it, work for it and you will get it. Nobody is against anybody. We all left our homes to serve, improve our society and improve ourselves and to do that, we need to work with other people.

“If we work with others and respect the views and sensibilities of others, it will help in creating an avenue for the party (APC) to move forward. Any other way by force or by fire is nothing, but a pathway to self immolation for the APC in Rivers State. We will not allow anybody to set the party on fire and destroy it.

“I remain a committed member of the APC. I am out of office, but not out of politics. Every politician cannot hold office at the same time. In or out of office, my commitment to our party, my commitment to the development, progress, peace, and prosperity of our country remains unchangeable. Whatever position I find myself I will continue to pursue those ideas.”

In order to move on and restrategise ahead of the 2023 elections, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the governing APC subsequently put in place a five-member Isaac Ogbobula-led caretaker committee to conduct fresh ward, local government and state congresses between September 17 and 28 this year.

Shortly after the caretaker committee was put in place, the factional chairman (Odike) abandoned Abe and returned to Amaechi’s mainstream, but the senator alleged inducement.

Prior to returning to the mainstream, Odike earlier initiated an extraordinary stakeholders’ congress of Abe’s faction at the parallel secretariat, but he stayed away from the elaborate meeting.

Abe’s faction, at the extraordinary stakeholders’ congress, decided not to recognise the Isaac Ogbobula-led caretaker committee.

The factional chairman, in a statement, titled: “Rivers APC: Time to forge as one,” declared that end must now come to the crisis that prevented the party from fielding candidates in all the elections this year, over court cases arising from the ward, local government and state congresses of APC in Rivers.

The former deputy chairman said: “I, Prince Peter Odike, one of the founding father’s of APC in Rivers State, and the Acting Chairman of the party in the state, hereby congratulate the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great party, on the decision to settle the crisis of the party in our state, once and for all.

“Let me also congratulate the members of the caretaker committee (of APC in Rivers State), as headed by Barr. Isaac Abbot Ogbobula, on their appointments. I wish, therefore, to advise the committee members that the tasks before them demand that they be fair, democratic and firm in the discharge of their duties. The public may be reminded that our position has always been to open the democratic space for all eligible members to participate in. Posterity will hold the committee members responsible, if they fail to do so.

“May I, therefore, urge all APC members (in Rivers State) to embrace this opportunity that has been provided, in order for us to be the formidable party that we all yearn for.”