Abe warns Amaechi: You have no right to announce Rivers APC congress

Sen. Magnus Abe, the immediate past Senator representing the Rivers South-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, has stated that the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, does not have the legal standing to announce the congress of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State. Senator Magnus Abe and Transport Minister, Chibuike Amaechi Amaechi had reportedly announced to his supporters shortly after he was inaugurated into President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet as Transportation Minister, that there would be congress in the state.

However, Abe in a statement by his media aide, Mr Parry Benson, in Port Harcourt yesterday, noted that such announcement was made without cognizance to the existing judicial pronouncements on the subject matter and the need for consultation as it affects the interest of other party members. He noted that the Minister of Transportation rather than concentrate on achieving the needed contribution to national development is creating another avenue for tension and crisis in the political structure of the party, demonstrating the same unruly behaviour that brought the party in Rivers State to a fiasco.

Abe urged the minister to demonstrate his sincerity in rebuilding the party by consulting others and showing respect for the rights and feelings of all members of the party. He assured the group that even if he is out of office, he is still a politician that is committed to the development of the party, insisting that what is needed is peace, inclusiveness, progress and the commitment of all members to move the party forward. Abe further said: “Look at the state of our party here today in Rivers State, yet the Minister of Transportation, on assumption of office as Minister of Transportation, the first thing he did was to announce Congresses in Rivers State and I ask myself, this was the same kind of behaviour that led the party to where it is.

“Everybody in Nigeria knows that the origin of the crisis in Rivers APC was from the Congress and how the Congress was handled and there are extant Judicial pronouncements on the last Congress which the party was misled to ignore and we have all kept quiet in the hope that by keeping quiet we will create room for resolution of some of these challenges so the party can move forward. “Instead, you become more brazen in your challenge to the rights, feelings and interest of others within the same political party. How do we do that and expect to make progress? “What kind of Congress, is he the Chairman of the party? Is he the National Working Committee? Is he the Court? What gives him the power to come and announce Congress on the day he was inaugurated as Minister?” Vanguard