APC Yet To Learn from Experience in Rivers, Says Abe

Former senator representing Rivers South-east senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has expressed regret that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is yet to learn valuable lessons from events that cost it the opportunity to vie for positions in Rivers State during the last general election.

This is as he ruled out any form of battle in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), insisting that calls for the removal of appointees in the Commission were diversionary.

Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Abe traced the genesis of the woes of the APC in Rivers State to the “unconstitutional decision of the leader of the APC in Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, to exclude and expel members of the party sympathetic to the ambition of Senator Magnus Abe from the party.”

He said it was unfortunate that the party was still toeing the same path even in its attempt to rebuild the party after the general election disaster.

He said the party had failed to properly consulting stakeholders before announcing dates for congresses, the same thing it did that caused the crisis in the first place.

The ex-lawmaker said he did not have any personal problems with Amaechi and would ordinarily communicate with him but for the barrier created by the allure of power.

According to Abe, "When I had my thanksgiving service, the Archbishop who presided over the service, asked me if I had invited all those had issues with me. He said I must invite all of them, including the governor, including the Minister. He said those I had issues with that I should invite all of them, and that I should not come to the House of God with a divided mind.

"So, I invited everybody, including the minister and every other person is that I have relationship with across the country. People honoured my invitation, including Governor Wike, but the Minister did not honour my invitation.

"I have no problem with the Minister; I believe that power has its challenges. It is difficult to communicate with people in certain circumstances. It is better to let them be. When they are normal, I am sure we will be able to communicate."

 

On developments in the NDDC, Abe said demands by some people for the sack of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and appointees of the NDDC were diversionary and likely to ridicule the people of the region.

He said: "Honestly, I don't see any battle in the NDDC; a lot of these battles are on the pages of newspapers. As far as I know, everybody that has turned up at the NDDC turned up on the instructions of the President.

"That is the person constitutionally mandated to appoint people into NDDC. If he has appointed anybody as acting or interim or whatever, we have been giving them support.

"So all those who are calling for the sack of Senator Godswill Akpabio, I want to advise them, in the interest of the Niger Delta, let us not behave in a manner that people in the country will think that we don't know what we are doing."

Abe also dismissed insinuations that he was working for Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, stating t5hat even though he had and enjoyed a robust relationship with the governor, that closeness was ruptured when they went their separate ways in politics.

His words: "Everybody knows that I know Governor Wike very well. We have worked together in the politics of Rivers State when he was the Chairman of Obio/Akpor local government area and I was the Minority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly.