Insists Abe cannot upturn outcome of due process
Admin l Thursday, May 17, 2018
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The National Coordinator of the Free Rivers Development Initiative, FRDI, a socio-political pressure group within the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Samson Ngerebara, an engineer, has stated that contrary to reports, a faction of the party that is supporting the governorship ambition of Senator Magnus Ngei Abe did not secure an injunction from a Rivers State High Court to stop the APC local government congress, conducted on Saturday, May 12, from holding.
Ngerebara, a former commissioner for works, transport, electricity and water as the ministry and portfolio was then known in 1992, under the administration of former Governor Rufus Ada-George, also stressed that the pro-Senator Abe’s faction of the party cannot upturn the outcome of the ward and local government congresses that were held on Saturday, May 5, and Saturday 12, respectively, because the elections were conducted according to the rules and guidelines of the APC’s constitution.
“There was no injunction stopping the Rivers State chapter of the APC from conducting its local government congress, on Saturday, May 12. The only two persons that can be sued in matters relating to congress in the APC are the national chairman and national secretary of the party in the National Executive Committee, NEC that conducted the congress. To claim to have sued the state chairman of the party in Rivers State is an exercise in futility. It will not work.
“According to the APC guidelines, a stakeholders meeting is to be held before party congresses. And a stakeholders meeting was actually held at which Senator Abe as usual spoke eloquently. We were told by members of the congress committee from the national headquarters in Abuja that the congresses will be in form of Option A4. All politicians in Nigeria know what Option A4 means. It simply means queuing behind your preferred candidate at the polling unit. And that was we did.”
The national coordinator of the FRDI said: “So, there was no need for anyone to go and destroy the party secretariat. And there was no court injunction per se. It was one thing to go to court and procure a paper. Someone, an APC man, who has been hobnobbing with Governor Nyesom Wike colluded with the governor to procure an injunction that has no effect. That was why we went ahead with the local government congress.”
“We were told at the stakeholders meeting that all interested aspirants should go to the banks designated by the party and purchase forms for the positions that they were vying for. And that they should proceed to their wards on the day of the congress; show their tellers as evidence of payment and participate in the electoral process. There would be no electoral materials. It was an open election. So, it is erroneous for anyone to have thought that there would be cartons of electoral materials for the conduct of the congresses.”
Ngerebara emphasized: “Abe is a factor in APC because his supporters cut across board. But that Senator Abe can upturn the outcome of the ward and local government congresses conducted by the party is not possible at all: you can take that from me. I call on my friends to retrace their steps and come back to join us in rebuilding the party and that is what I have been doing through the FRDI. And we have done very well in redirecting the party and gaining acceptability in the minds of many people. ”
