Rivers APC factions lay claim to state chairmanship position

Tue, Jun 19, 2018 | By publisher


Politics

TWO factions of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State are currently at loggerheads over who is the authentic state chairman of the party.

While APC members in support of Senator Magnus Abe declared Prince Peter Odike the acting state chairman, another faction maintained that Mr. Ojukaye Flag-Amachree is the ‘genuine’ party chairman.

Stakeholders in the Abe group also said that they would submit a delegates’ list for the party’s national convention.

Legal Adviser of the state APC, Chieme Chinweikpe, told newsmen in Port Harcourt on Tuesday that with the court order that nullified the congresses held in Rivers, Flag-Amachree lacks the powers to produce a list for the national convention.

Chinweikpe maintained that a delegates’ list would be made available and submitted for the national convention, saying, “What is void does not exist; court has barred Ojukaye Flag-Amachree from being the party chairman.

“They will contaminate the conference if they allow Ojukaye’s list to be submitted.

“The constitution of the party says anywhere the congress fails, the executive of the party becomes the statutory delegates.

All the party organs will serve as delegates for the congress.”

Speaking on his declaration as the state APC faction chairman, Odike, who is the former state deputy chairman of the party, said that the party’s congresses had failed in the state.

Odike said that with a court order annulling the recent APC congresses, the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree executive should not continue to stay.

He pointed out that he had assumed duty as the state acting chairman of the party, arguing that the APC constitution does not give room for administrative vacuum.

“With the voiding of the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree midnight congress, our State Working Committee, which they sought to succeed, is still in place and intact. “In one sentence, we are the State Working Committee and Exco of the APC in Rivers State.

“The Chairman, Davies Ikanya, is in London, UK, for medical examination and treatment. By the party constitution, the deputy chairman acts pending his resumption.

“I and other executives of the party have met and we have agreed that we will not allow the party to die.

“Consequently, I announce to you this morning that, I, Prince Peter Odike, JP, the Deputy Chairman of the party in Rivers State, pending the return and resumption of duty by the chairman, is the Acting Chairman of the APC, Rivers State,” he declared.

Reacting to Odike’s declaration as the acting chairman of the party, the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, dismissed the claim of the existence of a factional chairman.

Finebone insisted that Flag-Amachree remains the state chairman of the party.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State chapter of the APC is one under the chairmanship of Hon. Ojukaye Flag-Amachree and leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, CON; Minister of

Transportation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is a settled reality.,” Finebone said. – Punch

– Jun. 19, 2018 @ 15:39 GMT |

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