Tonye Cole, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress says he is in support of the party’s decision to adopt candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Awara Biakpomabo for tomorrow’s gubernatorial election.
Cole in a statement on Friday said that the party’s suit challenging the judgement of the Federal High Court which barred it from presenting candidates for the elections was struck out by the Appellate Court.
He said that they will approach the Supreme Court for review of the case.
He also thanked his followers for staying with him, adding that he will announce his next political decision after then.
The statement read: ” Over the past few months you have stood by me in prayer and encouraged me in no small means on this journey in politics. That prayer works is evidenced in my life and testimony throughout the battles we took on and I have nothing but praise to God for using you as a spiritual anchor in very trying times.
“Yesterday the Court of Appeal struck out our case on the grounds that The Supreme Court rulings make it impossible for them to deal with the case and therefore we must head back up for the Supreme Court to determine the substantive matter.
For this reason, neither I nor any APC candidate will be in the ballot this Saturday. This is but a pit stop and I will be assessing the next steps following the completion of the election.
Please by no means take this as a regrettable endeavour as nothing I have done to date can compare with the life lessons I have learnt these past months and how truly fulfilled I am of the potential available to me now to impacting multitudes in the years ahead.
As a party, we have adopted the AAC candidate as our preferred choice and we trust we have made that the right choice in who will lead Rivers State next.
Finally let me enjoin us to persevere a few more days in our waiting and raising praise unto our Lord until the election is done and dusted for it is critical they are concluded peacefully, with no loss of life and most importantly that a God’s choice for elected office holders is enthroned in Nigeria. God bless you.”