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By Godwin Chukwumaechi
Despite boycotting the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Sen. Magnus Abe and his supporters are upbeat that the senator, who once represented the Rivers South East Senatorial District, will be a candidate for the governorship election in the state in March next year.
Sen. Abe had on March 26, 2022, in disagreement with the indirect primaries adopted by the state APC to choose its governorship and state House of Assembly candidates, led his supporters to boycott the exercise.
But, while fielding questions from journalists, the senator insisted that he would be on the ballot for the election as a governorship candidate come 2023.
“Let me say this clearly, there will be an election to elect a governor for the people of Rivers State in March next year as in other parts of this country. And it will be the responsibility of the Rivers people to choose the governor that will superintend the affairs and activities of all of us.
“What I will say to Rivers people is that I, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, will be on that ballot and Rivers people will have the opportunity to choose who shall lead our dear state moving forward.
“No one individual, however powerful, however well connected, however wealthy will decide for all of us. You will have that opportunity to decide who our next governor will be and I, Magnus Abe will be on the ballot,” Abe declared.
This has become a mantra for his supporters in the Rivers APC even though neither the senator nor any of those supporters has been able to explain to the public how they intend to achieve that feat following the INEC time table on the election process.
Earlier in the week former representative of Rivers West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Wilson Ake, repeated the boast during the conclusion of inauguration of registration of officers for the Project SMA 2023, at Bori, headquarters of Rivers South-East senatorial district.
Performing the inauguration, he said the aspiration of Senator Magnus Ngei Abe to be on the ballot in the forthcoming governorship election in the state, is a project that has come to stay.
Ake said: “Abe is an illustrious son of Rivers State that we are proud of. What we are doing here today has been done in Port Harcourt for Rivers East senatorial district and Ahoada Town for Rivers West senatorial district.
“We are to confirm the statement made by Abe that we will be on the ballot in 2023. No human will stop Abe from being on the ballot to contest for the governorship in 2023 neither will any of them be able to appoint a governor for Rivers people. What we are doing is a prelude.
“We are here to tell you that from what we are seeing, Abe will be in Government House come 2023. We are knocking at the Government House door and asking the occupant to start packing and get ready to vacate”.
He called on the registration officers to be diligent in carrying out their assignment, adding that a lot is expected of them to enable Abe to occupy the Rivers State Government House in 2023.
He charged the supporters: “Have you seen the two candidates they brought out in APC and PDP. These are people you have never seen before, but Abe is somebody you have known for a very long time. So, we cannot afford to fail because if we fail, Rivers State will be in trouble. The man we know is Senator Magnus Ngei Abe”.
Former leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Golden Chioma, noted the registration officers cannot afford to fail in the Project SMA 2023.
Chioma said: “We thank you for volunteering to carry out this assignment. This project falls squarely on you. It does not discriminate on any party. We all have one project, SMA. Rivers South-East is our strongest district for SMA supporters. Please, take this job very serious, we are going somewhere”.
Also, director-general of Freedom House, Abe’s Campaign office, Worgu Boms, said the Project SMA 2023 is a process of producing the first Rivers governor of Ogoni extraction.
“We are in the business and process of making the first Ogoni governor. We are not pretending about it. We are not joking about it. Next year, we want to see an Ogoni governor”, Boms stated.
Inaugurating the officers at Rivers West senatorial district, at Ahoada Town, headquarters of the district, Ake charged the officers to go to their wards and units and register those that share the same aspirations with them.
He said: “The whole idea behind it is to get to our people. We want to return power to the people. We are tired of power by appointment by one man. Democracy is about the people and we believe that it is the right of the people to choose who will rule them; who will govern them; so that that person will be accountable to the people.
“When one man appoints a governor, governance is accountable to only that one man because he derives his power from the man. But when the people elect a governor, the governor is accountable to the people because the people elected him. We are tired of the government by one man for one man.
“This time around, we want a government of the people, by the people for the people. So that we can have some responsibility and people can work to see that this state is what is supposed to be,” he said.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Rivers East Senatorial District Committee for the registration of Project SMA 2023, Chief Tony Okocha, has said the essence of the project SMA is to test Senator Abe’s popularity ahead of the elections.
Okocha stated this in Port Harcourt, during the inauguration of registration officers of Project SMA 2023 for Rivers East senatorial district of the state.
Okocha said: “We are initiating a novelty in the political space in Rivers State. What is the novelty about? It is about a test of solidarity in terms of support of a candidate or an individual who says he wants to be governor of the state.
“What we are doing right now is for Rivers people to actually tell themselves the truth, who and who or who should govern them in 2023 in Rivers State. And so we are going to test Magnus Abe’s popularity and that is why we have flagged off what we call, ‘Project SMA 2023 Registration.
“This registration is across board, it’s across political party. I mean, there is no limitation. It is for indigene and non indigenes alike. So we are trying to do a referendum on his popularity and vis-a-vis, it will also aid in our decision as to what will happen with Magnus Abe for Rivers people in 2023,” Okocha said.