The endless feud for the soul of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State between the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his erstwhile political soul mate, Senator Magnus Ngie Abe, resurfaced early this year when some of the supporters of Abe, led by one Ogechi Ogwu Edwin, approached the Rivers State High Court in suit number PHC/1955/CS/2021, seeking for an interlocutory injunction against the erstwhile caretaker committee of the party, led by Isaac Ogbobula.
The group, in the suit, among other reliefs, sought an order of the court to set aside the congress of the APC in Rivers State.
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The trial judge presiding over the matter, Justice I. R Minakiri, our correspondent learnt, withdrew after studying the case files.
Justice Minakiri also withdrew from another suit from the same camp, instituted by one Alaibo Soibibo and three others against the Rivers State APC and Isaac Ogbobula.
Members of the party in the state loyal to Amaechi had alleged that the move by the judge to recuse himself from the suits came on the heels of an alleged incessant pressure from Governor Nyesom Wike to cow the former into doing the bidding of Abe.
Amaechi’s supporters berated Senator Abe and his followers for allegedly making themselves tools “in the willing hands of Governor Wike for pecuniary benefits.”
As if the feud between the two political gladiators is far from being abated, some members of the party in the state loyal to Abe, last week alleged that Ambassador Desmond Akawor, the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state had been conniving with Abe to destabilise the APC.
The former loyalists to the senator, in a statement signed by Tonte Amachree and Kelvin Okechukwu, alleged that Akawor attended a meeting by the Abe group, advising them on how to proceed with the suit against the APC and its former caretaker chairman, Ogbobula, as well as urging them to reassign the case to a new judge.
In a press statement issued in Port Harcourt ,they accused the Abe group of conniving with the Rivers State Government and the PDP to ensure that the party is left out of the 2023 ballot through the courts as they did in 2019.
The group went further to call on the national leadership of the APC to act fast and call Senator Abe and his group to order to avoid a situation where the misfortune of the party in 2019 would be replicated in 2023.
Tonte Amachree, who is from Asari-Toru Local Government Area, and Kelvin Okechukwu Obulo from Opobo-Nkoro noted in the statement they jointly signed that they were members of the APC in Rivers State, and emphasised that they had been loyal and active members of the Magnus Abe group.
The statement added, “ Last week Thursday, we were called by Bethel Oko-Jaja and Ben Horsefall, who are known leaders of the Magnus Abe group in Opobo/Nkoro and Asari-Toru respectively to a meeting where we would sign an affidavit to join in the suit against the APC in Rivers State and its former caretaker chairman, Isaac Ogbobula.
“The meeting was held at the house of Worgu Boms, a former attorney-general of Rivers State under the administration of former Governor Amaechi, and the meeting had elite members of the Magnus Abe group like Golden Ben-Chioma and Worgu Boms in attendance.”
They alleged that the State PDP chairman, Ambassador Desmond Akawor, was also in that meeting, and that he introduced himself and addressed them, advising the group on how to proceed in the case pending in court.
The leaders expressed their worries, saying, “How can the leadership of the opposition PDP be in our midst, encouraging us and even guiding us on how to pull down our own party from the inside?”
Abe noted in a statement, “In their latest desperation, the minister’s faction of the party has come up with a comic, infantile video to tell barefaced lies against my person. The so-called press conference by these desperadoes is nothing but a reflection of the frustration of a leadership that has clearly run out of ideas.
“Ordinarily, it would suffice for comic entertainment if the issues raised and their consequences for our party and state were not so grave. The allegations made by these gentlemen in the public glare constitute a conspiracy by Worgu Boms, Ambassador Desmond Akawor and the others named, to perverse the cause of justice, and if such a meeting was held, all those involved ought to be prosecuted and punished, no matter how highly placed.”
Abe stated that he had directed his solicitors to submit a petition to the commissioner of police in Rivers State, demanding an immediate investigation of the allegations.
He stated that investigation into the allegations must not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, noting that the truth would be revealed and let the law take its course.
He called on the national leadership of the APC to join him in demanding that the police should investigate the allegations aggressively so that the state chairman of the PDP and all those involved in the alleged act could be punished.
Similarly, the Rivers State chapter of the PDP has dismissed the claims by APC members that Ambassador Desmond Akawor is hobnobbing with the Abe faction to fuel crisis in the party.
The party, in a press statement signed by its state publicity secretary, Sidney Gbara, noted that the APC had always been pointing accusing fingers at the PDP.
Gbara noted that the party also had its own share of internal crises, which he said were always resolved amicably without looking for who to blame.
He noted that the PDP saw the unending crisis rocking the APC as unfortunate and an embarrassment to the state, saying Rivers people were known to be hospitable, but those in the APC were portraying them otherwise.
He pointed out that the PDP had no hand in the “imbroglio between the two factions of the APC” in the state, stressing that “days when such cheap blackmail festered in the public domain are gone.”
Meanwhile, the state chairman of the APC, Emeka Beke, has absolved the transportation minister of the allegation against him by Senator Abe.
In a statement, Emeka Beke noted, “Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by Senator Magnus Abe, expressly accusing the Minister of Transportation, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the leader of the APC in Rivers State as being behind a recent press conference by some individuals who confessed to have been working with Abe to undermine our party in Rivers State.
“After our preliminary investigation into the matter, we unequivocally absolved the minister of such wild accusation but rather urge Senator Abe to discreetly and diligently examine those he has been in political bed with for an answer to what is unraveling. The best place for Abe to start his investigation should be around the two gentlemen who appear not to be under any form of duress in the video clip in question that has gone viral in the media”
“Alternatively, Senator Abe may have to present to the party and Nigerians, concrete and verifiable evidence to support his accusation as failing to so do will present him as undeniably guilty of the same offence of character assassination he is levelling against others.”
Beke advised Abe to always exhibit maturity and not allow himself “to be driven by instinctive emotions in the face of serious developments that otherwise require measured and calculated reaction.”
In the meantime, the state chapter of the party has set up a reconciliation committee to reconcile all the warring factions in the state, but Abe’s supporters said they were not interested in the committee.
The irreconcilable political difference between Abe and Amaechi, which denied the party the opportunity to participate in the 2019 elections, seems to have defied all known solutions.
Analysts are of the opinion that the APC in Rivers State may be heading to the rock come 2023 if the two prominent politicians fail to put their enmity to an end and work out an amicable solution to unite the party.
