The senator representing Rivers South-East in the National Assembly, Magnus Abe has said claims that Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike has a hand in the Rivers APC crisis were sponsored by the minister of transport, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
Abe made the statement on Thursday during a phone-in radio program monitored by theportcitynews in Port Harcourt. He said that smear campaigns against him will not solve the lingering problem, adding that there is a small legal window to be explored and resolve the crisis.
The senator while reacting to the recent Federal High Court judgment which nullified the direct and indirect primaries allegedly held by two factions of the party in Rivers said people resorted to claims he was in a pact with Wike to insult and undermine him.
He said “Let me say clearly that the whole campaign of calumny against me is sponsored by the Minister and he did so in bad faith. The person who is orchestrating that campaign is one Chukwuemeka Eze.
“Rivers people hear me. Chukwuemeka Eze is not a Rivers man. He was living with Atiku in Yola, working for Atiku. Tonye Princewill brought him to Rivers politics. If we destroy ourselves and destroy our state, Chukwuemeka Eze has nothing to gain or lose. You are the ones that will lose.
“Now, let me tell you something Segun. If somebody like me, Wilson Ake, members of the House of Representatives like Elder Chidi and Maurice Pronen, members of the House of Assembly like Friday Nkeeh, Josiah Olu who are elected members of the APC; leaders of the party, people like Worgu Boms, Ipalibo Harry, all of us…If all of us are working for the PDP, where is the chance of the APC in the state?
“When somebody who is supposed to be worried about the interest, progress, survival and victory of the APC is the one continually telling you that somebody like Senator Abe is working for the PDP, shouldn’t your own common sense tell you that even if that were to be the case, anybody who loves APC should have been struggling to hide that fact?
“By even saying that kind of thing, is Chukwuemeka helping the APC? Is he helping the public—forget politicians, the public must have confidence in a political party. Is that thing building confidence in the APC that will enable Rivers people trust us and make us to win elections?
Abe said that the campaign of calumny against him began when he had his thanksgiving service and invited senators and governor Wike to attend.
According to him “What is the fact based on which Chukwuemeka Eze is saying this? That I had a thanksgiving service and I invited Senators, APC, PDP, everybody in the Senate, invited the Senate President and I invited the governor of Rivers State who happens to be Wike and he honoured my invitation on a day when the leader of our own party was holding a parallel event in Bori against me? Is that the basis of coming to the conclusion that I am working with Wike?
He said that those involving Wike in the crisis are not being sincere as Wike did not initiate the crisis.
He said: “Has it ever occurred to Rivers people that the ultimate beneficiary of the crisis in the APC is Wike? Now who initiated the crisis?
“Was it Wike who said that the meeting all of us had and we agreed to bring unity so that we can work together in the congresses, the meeting should be thrown aside, was it Wike who did that?
“Was it Wike who denied Ibrahim Umar and over 16,000 fellow members of your own party, who fought with you during the last election—some of them their brothers lost their lives, some of them had their houses destroyed and all that—and they went to buy forms just for the right to take part in an APC activity, and somebody decided that they cannot. Was it Wike who took that decision?
“At the time they went to court and the court said, “don’t proceed, deal with the issue of these people first”. Was it Wike who flagrantly disobeyed that?
“The time we made a request that since we are in court, let’s do Direct Primaries in Rivers State and people sat down and made a request for indirect primaries which they knew would be in total conflict with the existing case that was already on at that time in the court, with two orders of court that were still subsisting, but people still went ahead to make request of indirect primaries, was it Wike who did that?
“When we set up a committee to say let’s try to look for a solution to restore peace and unity within the party and people refused, was it Wike who refused?
“So all these people who are turning around to call Wike’s name, I mean they are the people working for Wike and doing things to weaken the APC”
