Ward congress now holds May 19, LG May 20, state May 21
Admin l Saturday, May 19, 2018
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The combustive political skirmish between the Minister of Transportation and leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and Senator Magnus Ngei Abe has produced a shocking result, tilting in favour of Abe. National Chairman of the APC, Chief Tony Odigie-Oyegun, late on Friday night, issued a statement in Abuja, cancelling the ward congress purportedly held on Saturday, May 5, and the local government congress, conducted in controversial circumstances, on Saturday, May 12.
The Senator representing Rivers South East and his supporters had complained to the national headquarters of the party that no ward congress was conducted in the 319 wards in the state because over 16, 000 aspirants who paid for nomination forms at designated banks were not given the nomination forms they had paid for.
Thousands of agitated aspirants who had besieged the Rivers State APC secretariat, along Forces Avenue, in GRA Phase 1, Port Harcourt, were chased away by armed security personnel who shot live bullets and tear-gas cannisters to disperse irate members of the party. Aggrieved members of the party who had paid for the nomination forms bemoaned that the nomination forms that the State Chairman of the APC, Chief Davis Ibiamu-Ikanya, assured them had arrived the state, at an expansive stakeholders meeting, on Wednesday, May 3, were yet to be distributed as at 5.PM, on Friday, May 4.
Later that evening, the minister of transportation told journalists at the Intel’s Camp, located at the Eastern By-Pass, on the way to the Port Harcourt Township, that no electoral materials will be used for the ward congress. Amaechi insisted that the ward congress would now be conducted through Option A4, meaning party members were now to queue behind their preferred candidates during the ward congress.
Following the confusion and sporadic protest that ensued, thereafter, the Chairman of the Ward Congress Committee, Josiah Dogo, made series of radio announcements on the day the ward congress was to hold, on Saturday, May 5, from 12.PM up to 2.Pm, informing aspirants who had paid for nomination forms to proceed to their wards with their tellers to participate in the ward congress.
The announcement flagrantly contravened the APC guidelines which stipulates that aspirants upon the collection of the nomination forms should secure a guarantor from the 25 units in each ward and return the nomination forms to the party secretariat 24 hours before the commencement of the ward congress.
Perturbed that the process had become skewed in favour of certain candidates, most aspirants chose to boycott the electoral process, claiming that the sudden departure from the electoral guidelines was in breach of the APC’s constitution which guaranteed the rights and privileges of members of the party to participate fully in the party’s electoral process without inhibition.
While the former governor, Amaechi; the APC’s candidate in the 2015 governorship election, Dr. Dakuku Peterside; State Chairman, Chief Ibiamu-Ikanya; Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, and othe top-brackets in the pro-Amaechi faction hailed the process and outcome of the ward congress, Senator Abe and his staunch supporters condemned what had transpired.
Stakeholders of the APC who are supportive of Senator Abe’s governorship ambition held a news conference, at Freedom House, Abe’s campaign office, insisting that no ward congress took place in the state, on Saturday, May 5. Efforts by the pro-Abe group to secure a court injunction on Friday, May 11, to forestall the conduct of the local government congress was ambushed by pro-Amaechi supporters who thronged the headquarters of the Rivers State judiciary complex, as early as 6.AM, to lock up the main gates of the high court with chains and padlock.
Members of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, who were vexed that some members of a faction of the APC were exporting their internal squabbles to obstruct the administration of justice stormed the Rivers State judiciary complex to forcefully open the gates. However, the pro-Abe faction succeeded in obtaining an injunction from a Rivers High Court restraining the APC from conducting the local government congress, on Saturday, May 12.
In spite of the court injunction, the pro-Amaechi faction went ahead to conduct the local government congress. The conduct and the outcome of the local government congress further exacerbated the festering crisis within the Rivers State APC. While the pro-Amaechi faction was preparing to conduct the state congress, the pro-Abe group maintained that whatever happened during the ward and local government congresses negates the ideals of democratic tenets that the APC stands for.
Going by the statement by the national chairman of the party, the outcome of the ward and local government congresses stands nullified because of widespread misgivings expressed by stakeholders of the party in the state.
The long-running political battle between Amaechi and his henchmen and Abe and his foot soldiers will, again, be put to test on Saturday, May 19, for a fresh ward congress; Sunday, May 20, for the local government congress; and Monday, May 21, for the state congress.
