Respect court judgment on Rivers APC, party chieftains tell Oshiomhole

PROTESTS against the outcome of the primaries conducted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee, (NWC) led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole continued on Friday in Abuja, as aggrieved chieftains of the party from Rivers State besieged its national secretariat.

Led by Ambassador Anosike Odowa, they demanded the compliance with Wednesday Rivers State High Court judgement in Port Harcourt which nullified the nomination of Mr Tonye Cole as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state.

Delivering judgment in a suit filed by 23 APC members, Justice Chiwendu Nwogu, declared that all actions taken by the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led executive of the state APC, including the indirect governorship primary conducted by a faction of the party led the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, had been set aside.

Justice Nwogu further declared that the ward congresses of Rivers APC were illegal, adding that the congresses were not conducted according to the APC guidelines and constitution.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Ambassador Odowa appealed to Comrade Oshiomole to avoid the fate that befell the ruling party in Zamfara state and declared Senator Magnus Abe as the winner of the direct primaries conducted in the state. He further accused the former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi of instigating crisis in the State.

He said: “We are members of APC from Rivers State. We are here this morning to register our grievances, to speak to the National Chairman of the party and the NEC of our party that one man called Rotimi Chubuike Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation has gone ahead to disobey Court judgement.

“He brought his business partner to be the candidate of our party and we are saying that we don’t know Tonye Cole. We are members of this party, we struggled for this party and we believe in APC. We left PDP to APC because of impunity and injustice. Now, the National Chairman of our party should do the right thing by accepting the result of direct primaries which Senator Magnus Abe emerged as the winner.

“Now the Court of competent jurisdiction sitting in Port Harcourt has ruled and voided every activity of the purported primaries conducted by Rotimi Chubuike Amaechi. Indirect primaries conducted by Rotimi Chubuike Amaechi has been voided and in law, it cannot stand. If APC wants to win Rivers State then Magnus Abe is the governorship candidate in Rivers State.

“We will stop at nothing, we will fight our last strength to ensure that justice must prevail. We are stakeholders in this party and I will advise the National Chairman to be upright and Amaechi should stop pushing him, this party is not Amaechi Peoples Party, it is All Progressives Congress party, not Amaechi Personal Property.

We want to ask that the National Chairman should live up to expectation and do the right thing. We know him to be a man who is upright but he should not allow his integrity to be questioned in this matter. Rivers State is for direct primaries and Magnus Abe emerged winner of the direct primaries.”

The protesters further dismissed the allegation that Senator Abe was working with Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike to undermine APC in the State.

“We want to say without fear and contradiction that Senator Magnus Abe is a true APC member, he has never betrayed the confidence reposed in him. When Mangus went to receive the bullet, everybody was saying that ‘this is a true APC member.’ Did he tell them to disallow them from contesting in the primaries that they were supposed to contest? When we wanted to do our ward, local government and state primaries, did he say they should not contest? When they deprived people and they went to a court of competent jurisdiction to address the issue they said he is working with Wike, today they are accusing him.

He remains the only committed APC member that has worked for this party. You recall that in 2015, when PDP won the election in Rivers State and it was nullified in December 2016 that election was conducted. The only man who won his senatorial district is Magnus Abe.”