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… As Committee Opens Sale of Forms
By Joel Anekwe
The Senator Magnus Abe faction of the All Progressives Party (APC) in Rivers State has declared that it would not participate in the party congresses slated for September 17 in the state.
The faction chaired by Prince Peter Odike, at a stakeholders meeting in Port Harcourt, Wednesday said it amounts to putting the cart before the horse for the APC National Working Committee, NWC, to contemplate conducting congresses for Rivers before resolving the factional crisis which denied the party participation in the 2019 elections in the state.
The faction, which is equally angered by non-inclusion of its members in the NWC-appointed caretaker committee for the Rivers APC, vowed to boycott the congresses as the caretakers opened sales of nomination forms Wednesday, operating from the Transportation minister, Chibuike Amaechi-led faction’s secretariat.
Former Rivers State attorney general, Worgu Boms, presented the communique’ at the end of the stakeholders meeting saying: “The party is again threading the route of exclusion and disdain for the rights and feelings of members, that plunged Rivers APC into needless crisis resulting in the party being denied participation in Rivers in the general elections.
“As critical stakeholders, bearing in mind the circumstance of the party in the state, we were not consulted by NWC in appointing a caretaker committee in Rivers nor does the committee reflect the diversity of the party in the state. The so-called caretakers are simply cronies of the minister of Transportation.
Boms who served as Amaechi’s attorney general further said: “Their objective and purpose is clear, they were parties and participants in the actions that brought the party on its knees in Rivers. Apart from being unknown to the constitution by all means and fairness, they cannot provide a solution to our present challenges. We therefore reject the caretaker committee as it is clearly an orchestration to deepen the woes of the party.
“We urge all members of APC in Rivers to remain steadfast in pursuit of justice. Based on extant judicial procurement and Governor Lalong’s committee report adopted by NWC, where congresses could not hold, existing executives manage the affairs of the party. Chief Odike, by the rules should have been consulted as chairman, Rivers State,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Isaac Abott-Ogbobula-led five-man caretaker committee has settled into the Amaechi-led faction’s state secretariat along Aba-Port Harcourt Express Road as their operating base from where they immediately commenced sale of nomination forms for the congresses thus drawing the ire of Abe’s faction.
Abott-Ogbobula assured the dissenting voices of “free fair and transparent congresses,” adding that “our mandate is to run the affairs of the party pending the conclusion of the congresses,” while soliciting the cooperation of party members to ensure successful delivery of that mandate.
The caretaker boss also conveyed the promise by the NWC, led by national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, to send reconciliation team to Rivers State to reconcile all aggrieved members, just as Alhaji Aminu Hungu-Husain who chairs separate supervision of sales of nomination forms committee disclosed that ward congress would involve all party members electing their leaders.