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A governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has declared that his
disagreement with leader of the party in the state and Minister of
Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is political.
Abe, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt by his spokesperson, Parry
Saroh Benson, said Amaechi has publicly declared that he will not support
his governorship aspirations.
The senator said, “I am amused by some of these allegations and stories
making the rounds. For the records, the disagreement between me and the
Minister (Amaechi) is political. He is the leader of the party but he has
said publicly on several occasions that he can never support me.
“That means the entire country knows that he cannot pretend to be neutral
or an unbiased umpire in any matter in which my interest and the interests
of those interested in me are concerned. Yet, as the leader it is his
responsibility to provide a level playing field for us all.”
Abe, who is the senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District
in the National Assembly, insisted that those who converged at the APC
secretariat in Port Harcourt on Friday, May 4, 2018, were not thugs but
members and supporters of the party.
He said, ‘The people he (Amaechi) is referring to as thugs and hoodlums
today were the same people that were his heroes yesterday. They were the
people we used to blockade the Rivers State Judiciary when his government
was threatened. They were the people that slept for days outside the
Rivers State House of Assembly to protect his government.
“A lot of them were members of Save Rivers Movement who risked and gave
their all to birth the APC in this state, and he knows a lot of them by
name, but today they are thugs and hoodlums because he is now the
oppressor”.
“We are politicians, tomorrow when we need voters, who will these people
now branded as thugs be? People paid for forms, they had their tellers and
no one was telling them what was going on, they besieged the state
secretariat for explanations.”
“Rather than the leader to come and address them they brought armed
policemen to open fire on innocent party men and women. That attack led to
the pandemonium at the secretariat.”
“They were there from morning and there was no violence until the police
came and opened fire on APC members who were totally peaceful. Who
authorised the shooting and why?”