Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that Senator Magnus Abe ruined his gubernatorial ambition by not supporting the candidacy of Dr Dakuku Peterside in the 2015 Rivers State governorship election.
Eze maintained that those blaming the current challenges facing Abe on Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, were misinformed.
Eze insisted that Abe was the architect of his gubernatorial misfortune and travail.
In a statement he signed and made available to newsmen on Thursday, Eze accused Abe of thwarting a political formula where Peterside, the APC’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 election, would complete his terms in office, whenever elected as governor.
He explained further that in line with the arrangement, Abe would take the ticket later as that would have both satisfied the riverine agitation, answered the Ogoni question, and pacified the South-East senatorial district.
“But Abe worked against it in 2015 by refusing to support Peterside, and by so doing, undermined his own ambition,” Eze said.
Eze, an ally of key actors in Rivers APC, noted that the formula if Abe had allowed it to work, would have solved the issues of sharing of political power along the upland and riverine dichotomy; the challenge of the South East senatorial district that have not produced an elected Governor since the creation of Rivers State in 1967.
Also, Eze said the issue of Ogoni not producing a governor since the creation of the state would have been resolved with the APC formula.
However, he exuded confidence that it can only take “a sagacious, patriotic, practical, concerned and seasoned political leader like Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to find a solution to such seemingly sophisticated and impossible challenge facing Rivers Sate as listed above.
“Amaechi, whose love for Senator Magnus Abe knows no bound as he had maintained at various fora, had devised the means to address the issue of the Ogoni not producing a governor for the state since 1967 by positioning him to fly the flag of APC after Peterside may have ended his governorship, but sadly, Abe worked against it.
“So it beats my imagination for Abe and his team to continue to deceive outsiders that Amaechi is against his gubernatorial ambition instead of telling the world that he personally scuttled an arrangement that would have addressed the issue of Ogoni people once and for all.”
Eze said he was saddened that instead of Abe to adhere to wise counsel and engage the elders and political leaders in Rivers State to dialogue on whatever maybe the issues between him and Amaechi, “he preferred to set up a mischievous and propaganda media team to misinform the public against Amarachi.
“I just wonder how such a plot or sponsored attacks against Amaechi could help his gubernatorial aspiration,” the APC stalwart stated.
