Some All Progressives Congress, APC, members in Rivers state have accused some of the party members of allegedly conniving with the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to pull down APC in Rivers state.
The APC members, in a statement, claimed that some members loyal to Sen. Magnus Abe are conniving havewith PDP and the Rivers State Government to ensure that the party is left out of the 2023 ballot through the courts like they did in 2019.
In the statement signed by two members of the group, Tonte Amachree and Kelvin Okechukwu, they alleged that the PDP Chairman in Rivers State was in attendance at a meeting by the Abe group advising them on how to proceed with the suit against the APC and it’s former caretaker Chairman, Isaac Ogbobula, and its reassignment to a new judge.
They went further to call on the National leadership of the APC to act fast “and call Sen. Abe and his group to order to avoid a repeat of the party’s 2019 fortunes in 2023.”
The statement read:
“Our names are, Tonte Amachree from Asari-Toru Local Government Area APC Ward 7, and Kelvin Okechukwu Obulo from Opobo-Nkoro APC Ward 4.
We are members of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers Sate.
We have been loyal and active members of the Magnus Abe group.
Last week Thursday, we were called by Bethel Oko-Jaja and Ben Horsefall who are known leaders of the Magnus Abe group in Opobo/Nkoro and Asari-Toru Local Government Areas respectively, to a meeting where we would sign an affidavit to join in the suit against the APC in Rivers State and its former Caretaker Chairman, Isaac Ogbobula.
The meeting was held at the house of Worgu Boms, a former Attorney General of Rivers State under the administration of former Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
The meeting had elite members of the Magnus Abe group like Golden Ben-Chioma and Worgu Boms in attendance.
The State PDP Chairman, Ambassador Desmond Akawor was also in that meeting.
He introduced himself and addressed us, advising the group on how to proceed.”
The group claimed that the PDP chieftain assured them of the state government’s support.” They also said that the PDP chieftain claimed the case would be reassigned to a new Judge whom they said would do their bidding since the former Judge, Justice Minakiri excused himself from the suit.
The group continued in the stateme t saying thus:
“Now, this is our grouse.
Why would the Chairman of the opposition party be in our meeting?
We had earlier believed that we were working to put the party back together. But with this new development, we believe otherwise.
How can the leadership of the opposition PDP be in our midst, encouraging us and even guiding us on how to pull down our own party from the inside?
Why would our people be conniving with the State government and the PDP to destroy our party in the guise of making things right?
We silently walked out of that devilish meeting with the realisation that we’ve been fooled all along.
We cannot fold our arms and allow Abe’s group to mislead us again.
We cannot afford for our party not to be on the ballot again.
We refuse to let 2019 repeat itself in 2023.
And we are by this press statement, calling on the APC national to call senator Magnus Abe and his group to order, so that Rivers APC will move forward.”
