MAGNUS Ngei Abe, a senator and frontline governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, has said that what the state needs is politics of peace and unity not hatred, acrimony or bitterness. Abe who spoke in Port Harcourt, the state capital, during an interactive session with 26 community-based organisations in Port Harcourt Constituency 2, said politics of hatred, bitterness and acrimony is already destroying the state.

He said: “The first thing I believe that Rivers State needs is unity. I believe that the politics of hatred, bitterness, acrimony that has characterized our state in the recent past cannot take us anywhere.”

“It will destroy this state and it has started destroying the state. We need to bring people together. We need to learn how to tolerate one another; accommodate divergent views and bring out the best even in reluctant people.”

Abe, who is also the senator representing the Rivers South-East Senatorial  District in the National Assembly, declared that it is only God that will decide who will be Rivers State Governor in 2019 and not the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

“A lot of people have been telling me what my former boss, the former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, said about me and I said I will not respond. But I will simply go down memory lane to remind Rivers people of few things.

“First is that when I was Commissioner for Information under Dr. Peter Odili, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was aspiring to be Governor of Rivers State and it caused a big problem in the politics of that time between him and Dr. Peter Odili. I was a Commissioner in Odili’s cabinet, but I stood with Amaechi. Practically, at a time, I was the only person in Odili’s government that Amaechi was still talking to.

“I remember one day that I had a serious argument with Dr. Odili over Amaechi. We argued to a point and I said to Dr. Odili; Sir, can I tell you something? He said, tell me. I said, whoever God has said will be Governor of Rivers State will be Governor of Rivers State and there is nothing Dr. Peter Odili can do about it.

“When I went to apologise to him, he told me not to apologise. He said, Magnus, what you have said is true.

“It is to the eternal credit of Dr. Peter Odili that he allowed me to serve out my term in his cabinet. He never came out publicly to call me a traitor or a betrayer because he respected the fact that I chose to stand by my friend.

“I have said the same thing to Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and I want to repeat it here. Whoever God has said will be Governor of Rivers State will be Governor of Rivers State and there is nothing Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi can do about it,” the senator said.

Abe denied insinuations that he is being sponsored by Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike to cause crisis within the APC in the state, insisting that he is only fighting for his rights.

The governorship hopeful added, “Secondly, I have heard insinuations that I am being sponsored by Nyesom Wike (incumbent Governor of Rivers State) because I decided to fight for my rights, not only as a citizen of my state but as a member of my party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

“I remember, when he also fought for his rights and he took the PDP, of which we were both members to Court, up to the Supreme Court; he fought for his right and we stood by him. I did not remember that Dr. Odili came out to accuse him that he was a betrayer or being sponsored by anybody.

“He knew that he was fighting for his rights and he wanted to be governor and he respected that struggle.

“Today, I want to repeat, I am fighting for my right. I want to be the Governor of Rivers State. I will fight in any way that is constitutionally allowed, and whatever God says at the end, I will accept in good faith.

“So, I will continue to refer to Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as the leader of our party in Rivers State. He is the only member of the party that is a former Governor and a member of the caucus of our party. I refer to him as leader to send  signals to all our members no matter how aggrieved they may be that we should be ready to work with him any time he decides that it is appropriate to allow justice to prevail,” Abe stated.

– Sept. 19, 2018 @ 14:18 GMT |