Brave Dickson
The Ijaw Youth Council in the three Kalabari LGAs of Asari-Toru, Akuku-Toru, and Degema has dismissed rumours of endorsing the 2023 APC governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, in Rivers State.
A few days ago, the Chairman of the IYC Kalabari Se-Ikpangi, Edward Asikitams, welcomed the judgment of an appeal court, which overturned the judgment of a federal high court and qualified Tonye Cole to contest the forthcoming election.
To some persons, the acceptance of the appeal court judgment by Asikitams has indicated his endorsement of Tonye Cole for the state guber race.
The rumour that elicited from the statement of Asikitams blamed the Kalabari IYC Chairman for using his IYC position to show favouritism on Tonye Cole over other guber candidates who hail from Kalabari.
In his clarification, Asikitams maintained that the IYC under his leadership has not endorsed Tonye Cole for governor.
He said, “before we endorse any candidate, all the candidates must come together and consensually agree to step down for a single candidate.
“All the candidates must not go to the poll if they want our endorsement. Others should sacrifice their ambition of becoming a governor for a consensus candidate.”
He did, however, add that if such an agreement could not be reached among the governor candidates before the election, the IYC would be free to vote for whomever they wanted.
