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… As PDP Seeks To ‘Disqualify’ APC Candidates
By Des Ogini
The times are getting tougher for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State going closer to the 2019 general elections, as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Obo Effanga claims that “as at now, no party, including the APC, has definite candidate for next year’s elections even though there are tentative lists of candidates that were published.”
Responding to a pointed question in an interview, the Rivers REC said, “There are no candidates yet for any political party for any position in the country. What the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published some weeks ago were the particulars of the persons presented by the respective political parties to the positions to be contested for. That has been published and it gives room for interested or concerned people to raise objections and possibly go to court.
“We will be bound by any court order that is addressed to us. It is sometime in January 2019 that the final list of all the candidates for all the elective positions for the 2019 general elections will be published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters,” he said.
While there are dual claims for guber candidate of the APC in Rivers State, with some queuing up behind Senator Magnus Abe (who is yet to name a running mate), others are stridently echoing the voice of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi in the person of Arc Tonye Cole as the standard bearer for the guber elections, to be deputized by Hon (Chief) Victor Giadom, former chairman of Gokana local government area.
Instructively, on the list headed by Arc Tonye Cole are the names of all those on the Amaechi/Ojukaye Flag Amachree camp of the APC, such as Amb. Oji Ngofa for Senate, Hon. Victoria Nyeche for House of Representatives and Ibim Duke (DELGA) for Rivers Assembly.
Senator Abe’s list has the likes of Chief Allwell Onyesoh for Senate, Tony Elukwu for Rivers Assembly, Malvin K. Thompson (Rivers Assembly, DELGA) and Prince Morris for House of Representatives.
In the meantime, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has rolled out plans to make the electoral process tougher for the APC, by initiating a court process to halt INEC from accepting any list of candidates for the 2019 general elections from APC in the state.
The PDP is asking the court to make declarative injunctions in its favour that the APC in Rivers State does not have candidates for all the elective positions for the elections.
In the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the PDP also wants the court to mandate INEC not to recognize any candidate for the APC in Rivers State.
In the murky waters of Rivers politics, there is another allegation that the governorship candidate of the PDP and serving governor is secretly sponsoring the governorship candidates of 48 political parties in the 2019 elections.
The claim is that Governor Wike paid off the expenditure for the purchase of their respective party’s intent/nomination forms.
