Magnus Abe, the Senator representing Rivers South-East senatorial district in the National Assembly on Friday called on the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, and his supporters in the state to stop abusing President Muhammadu Buhari over the ill-fate that befell the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The Senator while reacting to remarks made by a former Member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Chidi Lloyd where he (Lloyd) accused the president of abandoning the party’s faithful in Rivers State, said that Nigerians have heard and ignored stories of the abuses rained on the president on a daily basis by those, who are supposed to be his supporters and promoters in Rivers State.
According to a statement issued in Port Harcourt by his spokesperson, Parry Benson, Abe recalled that during the party’s presidential campaign in Port Harcourt, not a kind word was said about the President Buhari for his numerous achievements in the state.
The statement read: “I was visibly shocked when Hon. Chidi Lloyd, the Director-General of the Amaechi/Cole campaign went on Channels Television to openly abuse the president and blamed him for the electoral challenges facing the APC in Rivers State.
“This is most unfortunate. The habit of blaming everyone else for our woes must stop immediately. We had a needless and senseless power tussle in the party even when everyone agreed that the Minister was the leader, yet that was Senator Abe’s fault, (because Senator Abe has a gubernatorial ambition as if there is any member of a political party in Nigeria without an ambition).
“APC members in Rivers State went to Court for a minor issue that could have been resolved internally in ten minutes; they were accused of being sponsored by Governor Wike.
“The APC leadership went to physically attack the Courts and openly disobeyed court orders and the courts responded by axing the candidates for being products of that disobedience. The judges were accused of being PDP and working for Wike.
“Now, you have gone into an election for which you are clearly ill-prepared, and yet the President gave you everything.
Rivers APC had NDDC, Railway, NPA, Shippers Council; Ministry of Transportation, Police, Army, Air Force, DSS and yet, you could not win because the INEC REC is PDP. INEC Chairman is PDP, haba!
“Now, we are blaming the President. Is the president also working with Gov Wike? If we had taken time to remind Rivers people of the uncommon love that President Buhari has shown to Rivers people in the Ogoni cleanup, the Bodo-Bonny Road, approval for new Higher Institutions in Rivers State, appointments of our sons and daughters into positions of trust and so on.”
The senator further said: “We would have made more sense to Rivers people than the failed campaign for personal supremacy by the leader of the party in the state. The president even went as far as risking his reputation and integrity to support the APC in Rivers State more than any other State in Nigeria.
“In playing our usual blame game, let us leave President Buhari out of it and focus on the real issues facing the party in Rivers State,” Abe stated.
