Governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Abe, on Wednesday, said the reason he had fought this long was because his former ally and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi boasted that he and his supporters would go hungry in six months if he did not drop his governorship bid.
He however, said being with the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, was not enough to be uncharitable to Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State.
Recalling his experience with Amaechi, Abe explained that the former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, challenged him and his supporters that they would go hungry in six months and return to beg him, unless he dropped his governorship ambition.
He alleged that former governor Amaechi came to his house and warned him never to contest for the governorship position else, he would scatter the party.
Amaechi announced that the rebellion will not last for six months and that after six months all of us will go hungry and return to him.
“This is six years and more, look at us, we have shaken the country, we have deflated them, they have ran away and left the party and that is why we must go back to the party and we must go back now,” he said.
Abe, who at a meeting with his supporters and party faithful at his Freedom House office, in Port Harcourt, therefore, begged his supporters to join the APC in the state, to support the government of President Tinubu, and the FCT Minister, whom he said was working with the APC government.
Reacting to the ongoing crisis in the state, the former SDP governorship candidate, who has just returned to APC, said he had respect for the governor, stressing that his concern was for the 27 lawmakers who had become members of his party.
Abe argued that the embattled assembly members could not vacate their seats because they defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, explaining that he and many others took same step as federal lawmakers and didn’t vacate their seats until they left office.
“I have nothing but the greatest respect for the governor of Rivers state. He is the governor and we are not members of their party and we are not therefore part of their problem.
“We are members of the APC, the 27 House of Assembly members are members of the APC and so they are our own. We must defend them, we cannot say because they decamped from PDP, they are different APC from our own, that is not how party politics works.
“I decamped to APC from PDP on national television, 11 of us and we didn’t lose our seat. So, we cannot come here today and begin to support people that they should lose their seats because they decamped to our party, we will not do that.
“I have called for peace, negotiation and working together. And as a statesman in Rivers state, I will continue to call for that. I am not going to be uncharitable towards the governor because I am working with the FCT Minister. But I will defend our party and whatever position the party takes I will defend that position,” he added.
He described Wike as a formidable force, saying without him President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wouldn’t have won election in the state.
Blessing Ibunge
Follow us on:
