Admin l Friday, October 05, 2018
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – Senator Magnus Abe has rejected the endorsement of Tonye Cole as the flag-bearer of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 governorship election. The Senator representing Rivers South East told Journalists at a news conference, in Port Harcourt, today, that he will be appealing to the Governorship Primary Appeal’s Panel to evaluate the decision of the NWC.
He lamented after working assiduously for the growth and development of the APC for the past four years, a new entrant, Tonye Cole, was being gifted the River State gubernatorial ticket in fragrant disregard of the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC).The NEC had earlier resolved that the Rivers State chapter of the APC should conduct it’s governorship primary through direct primary, the process adopted by his faction of the party through which he emerged on Sunday, May 30.
Senator Abe declared: “I remain a loyal member of the APC. I will continue to support the presidential ambition of President Mohammadu Buhari for the 2019. I reject Tonye Cole’s candidature. It’s unfair. It’s unjust. And I will appeal against it.”
“I have nothing against Tonye Cole. He is my friend. And he will remain my friend. But S a politician, I cannot accept the fact that somebody who who just came in as an aspirant was given preference against those who have invested so much in the party.”
He stated: “We remain committed to APC and to President Buhari. It is the president that is keeping the party going. As a politician, we believe in justice because with justice, peace will reign. The battle to retrieve the mandate given to us by thousands of Rivers of Rivers people has just begun.”
Abe stressed: “We had a prior knowledge of what will be the outcome of the governorship primary. We have been telling Nigerians this for the past two years. So, what is happening now is not a surprise to us. The indirect primary was a charade and we will not accept it.”
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