The dust seems to settle and the Chibuike Amaechi faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State says it has found how it lost elections in 2019 and beyond in the state.
The faction is now contending with the Nyesom Wike faction which seems to be managed by one of those who had running battles in the party years ago, Tony Okocha, who says he is now the leader of party in the state. Already, he is the caretaker committee chairman of the party.
Read also: Amaechi finally speaks on Fubara, Wike feud
The Amaechi faction had consistently accused Wike of using some prominent members of the party including Magnus Abe and Igo Aguma to keep the party in unending contention apparently to and ensure the party never contested any election.
Now, a statement by the faction issued by the publicity secretary, Darlington Nwauju, says the party has found how the opponents used insiders to destabilise the party especially at elections.
Nwauju said their faction is now using the happenings and utterances of certain members to understand the roles they played in those moments.
Nwauju traced what happened in Khana local council area in 2019 where he said the chairman of the party in the LGA had reported case of theft of the entire budget of the election, thus cutting off the party from participating in the elections.
The statement said the same man in 2023 secured the ticket of the party for a federal parliamentary slot, only to sell it off to a rival.
The statement said when the seller showed up at the Khana LGA headquarters on election day, he was assaulted by the rival who was allegedly infuriated at the presence of a man he had ‘settled’ to stay off.
Nwauju said such was the way the APC lost out in Khana in the two election cycles, adding that it was same pattern in some of other locations.
The Amaechi faction thus said it was angry when such persons step out now to parade themselves as current leaders of the party they tried to destroy.
The factional scribe said it was infuriated at the press briefing by one of such personalities and described his utterances as “Vexatious and pungent vituperation by a licensed political mole and merchant who unashamedly sold out his political platform during the 2019 general elections”.
He went on: “We do know for a fact, that democracy all over the world is a celebration of the right to choices. And so, on this year’s Democracy Day, we would not shy away from giving an appropriate response to a needless press briefing by some group of interlopers who conspired with the greatest traducer of the APC in Rivers State, to balkanise our party and paint it as a platform for conscience-less and soul-less power thirsty individuals.”
Nwauju said such a character claims to have now been handpicked to serve as “Secretary” of an illegitimate committee, but that the man’s betrayal of the entire membership and stakeholders of our party in that LGA cannot be anything less than legendary.
He said they have now recalled how he claimed to have been attacked and monies meant for party agents and sundry logistics, miraculously disappeared from the trunk of his car. Of course, it left the entire LGA despondent and this effectively dismantled the party’s plans for elections in that LGA and unsurprisingly, we lost!
In 2023, he went on, the same man found himself undeservedly clutching the House of Representatives ticket of the party through the influence of his mentor.
“To cut long story short, he was assaulted at the local INEC office in Bori, by one of the supporters of his buyer, his main rival, who openly queried his presence at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after having collected money from his opponent three days before the general elections.
“The above scenarios capture our response to those who have willingly offered themselves as agents of destruction of the APC in Rivers State. “In any case, we are minded not to stray into issues pending before a competent court of law over the lawless decision taken to yank off democratically elected executives of our party in Rivers State. It is a well-known fact that elections are won at polling units and this man and his co-travellers should be ashamed that they waited for three election cycles before shifting blames for the party’s electoral losses to the former Transportation Minister. If we choose to do a simple analogy with the scenarios earlier painted (diversion of funds meant for elections, thereby frustrating the party’s plans in an entire LGA, and outrightly selling out a mandate freely given by members of our party in a constituency), how much more explanation would a discerning mind need before understanding how and why the party lost at those election cycles?
“It is obvious that what happened with this man was not in isolation. Such plots and worse were visited on several other constituencies just to stop the APC and the former Minister.”
The Amaechi faction stated that those who carried out these acts of sabotage have now come out to lay the blame of the losses to the same Minister of Transportation that was sabotaged.
“Now, those who did these havocs seem to be the ones speaking for the party they injured and are now deciding who to put the blames on, as if God and conscience do not exist.
Today, in a bid to continue with the cycle of losses and political trading, such characters are now clothed in the garb of the party’s “Messiahs”, parading as members of an interloping and thoughtless arrangement, pretending to be APC but like some folks in Rivers State would say, PDAPC or GDIAPC. And we ask: “Is this man also a true APC member?
“Has he reprised the assault he got at the INEC office for trading with his ticket?”.
Nwauju wondered further, “Have we forgotten that the then governor now FCT minister frequently boasted to newsmen that he had agents and spies everywhere including in Aso Rock? We can all see those secret agents now that it’s time to eat the fruits of their clandestine labour.
“We would not belabour ourselves with pedestrian arguments over the popularity, acceptability, and support base of former Governor Amaechi and his strategic importance in the politics of Rivers State and Nigeria, we only say to political hirelings, wait and see!
“We do understand the pains that several of those whose conscience still haunt and hound for betraying our party feel. We urge them to simply make peace with their Creator and move on or continue with their blackmail agenda and end up in self-destruct like the Biblical Judas who could not put his thirty pieces of silver to good use.”
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