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By Amaechi Okonkwo
The All Progressives Congress, APC,faction loyal to Sen. Magnus Abe, has committed itself to raise at least 50, 000 supporters in Rivers State for the presidential ambition of former Lagos State governor, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This is as the party, at the weekend in Port Harcourt, inaugurated Bola Ahmed Tinubu Support(BATS) Vanguard in Rivers State.
BATS Vanguard was formed to drive Tinubu’s presidential ambition in the forthcoming general elections with a charge on all leaders of the vanguard in the state to go on aggressive drive for members to achieve their target
Speaking at the event, Sen. Wilson Ake, who is the chairman of the steering committee of the group decried what he termed the using and dumping syndrome in the All Progressives Congress(APC), insisting that Tinubu should be given a chance to vie for the presidency as a reward for his contributions to the party.
He alleged that the attacks on Tinubu’s businesses during the #EndSARS protest was meant to eliminate him from the race even before it started.
“For someone to work and another person will come and eat is not of God. We are supporting Tinubu because we know that he is eminently qualified, and he has worked so hard to see APC win; so we do not have that wicked spirit in us that is why we are saying we must pay back Tinubu what he has put in APC.
“We are not against anybody who wants to try, anybody that wants to try should go ahead, but they should not use the question that they must eliminate Tinubu to succeed, it is not of God,” he insisted.
“They went as far as starting #EndSARS in Lagos State, the #EndSARS ended up by burning Tinubu’s hotel, his television house, his newspaper house when Tinubu was not in government.
“You can see that the target is, how do we decimate this man. After you have worked so hard, then people will say you should go to the back and sit and the good man and the good woman will clap for such thing.”
Ake condemned those complaining about Tinubu’s age, stressing that the position he wishes to run for requires maturity, experience and hardworking personalities, and not for youths.
The three time senator maintained that the former senator and governor is “eminently qualified” for the position and should not be disqualified on the ground of age.
“Tinubu worked so hard for APC, and there are some persons who think that people should work and be dumped in the end, those that have the spirit of using and dumping need prayers.
“When Tinubu was working for APC, nobody thought about his age, he has finished working, now they are saying he is too old he should go and sit down, let one young person come and take over, it does not work like that.
“When they talk about age I begin to ask, Buhari is the oldest man in government; president, governor and everything. Can you say any of them has performed better than Buhari now, because he is old?
“If they are now saying that Tinubu is old, it then means that they are regretting bringing Buhari that is what they are trying to say, so they should come out opening to say that.”
Furthermore Ake said, “Looking at all the state governors, they are within the age bracket of 30 and 50, is there any magic coming from them? Instead of them to look out for quality, they are emphasising on age that shows that we are not serious in this country.
“Anybody using the question of age to attack, disqualify Tinubu is merely playing the ostrich and we cannot allow that to distract us.”
Speaking on why they are routing for Tinubu for president he said it was based on justice and fairness.
“It is only fair and respect for justice if we should say, Tinubu should be the next president of Nigeria.”
Also speaking the state coordinator the group Chief Tony Okocha described Tinubu as a detribalized Nigeria.
Okocha recalled how during his (Tinubu)reign as Governor made appointed non state indigenes into his cabinet, and created and funded development areas to drive development in the state.
“We know he has a medias touch. We know he is competent, we know that he is experienced and we know that he is detribalized so if we have a nationalist like that why won’t we support him,”Okocha asked.
He said the mission of BATS in the state is to mobilize 50, 000 APC supporters in the state to support Tinubu for the position in 2023.