By: Felix Ikpotor
There is uneasy calm among supporters of the various riverine aspirants in the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi’s faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State following the emergence of Architect Tonye Cole as the consensus riverine candidate of the party.
Before now, precisely on 11th April, 2022 all thirteen riverine aspirants of the party had signed an agreement to stand by whoever emerges as the candidate while it was also resolved that all of them should go ahead with their consultations.
Magnus Ngei Abe from the other faction had on Easter Sunday, declared to run for the governorship of the state on the platform of the APC.
Cole, an oil magnate and longtime friend of Amaechi was Friday night, presented as a consensus riverine candidate of the minister’s faction of the party after a meeting between the thirteen riverine aspirants of the party and 19 elders of the party in Abuja.
He was also the faction’s flag-bearer in 2019 election before the court removed the party from the ballot owing to issues arising from their congresses.
However, after the name of Tonye Cole emerged last night, several supporters of some of the aspirants took to social media lamenting imposition. They argued that Cole is an outsider and never laboured alongside others to build the party in the state.
They say the likes of Dakuku Peterside, the 2015 gubernatorial candidate of the party and immediate past Director General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) or other core party men should have been given the ticket.
One of them wrote on his social media page, “if no PH brought up is good to be governor, none is certainly fit for presidency. We shouldn’t be unfit for governorship, yet qualified for presidency.”
Confirming the situation, George Tolofari, Coordinator of the Progressives Aspirants Forum urged party faithful to abide by the decision.
“Yesterday 19 leaders of our dear party met in Abuja with the 13 aspirants and unanimously adopted Arch. Tonye Cole as the consensus candidate for the Riverine-Ijaw aspirants to face any other aspirant that may wish to contest the party primaries on the Platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC)”.
“I call on all party members to put all differences aside and see ourselves as one indivisible family. We are party people and what should be paramount to us all is winning all electable positions in the forthcoming general elections, God being our helper. I also make bold to say that the leaders who made the decision were not influenced by anyone but took the decision to ensure that everyone is taken along”.
Similarly, one of the aspirants, Dr Sokonte Davies has also urged party faithfuls to respect the decision of the party.
Davies wrote, ” I hereby use this medium to call on my colleagues, party leaders, party faithful and Rivers people to channel our all to achieve the victory Rivers people desire. Now is the time to come together and salvage Rivers State from the manifest malfeasance in governance and state administration”.
“However, for those who disagree, the race is still fresh and open for everyone who wishes to contest to do so but that should be done with decorum and without deceit. As for us, as we have said previously and severally, we are credible people; our word remains our bond and party remains forever supreme”.
On his part, the consensus riverine candidate, Tonye Cole while addressing party members in a statement he personally signed said the decision to make him a candidate was a tough one for the committee and thanked them for a good job.
“As many of you would have learnt by now, our great party has adopted me as the consensus candidate for the 2023 gubernatorial election. This decision did not come lightly and was heavily debated. Many lessons were learnt from my emergence as the flagbearer in 2019, the primary one being erroneously labeled as an imposition on the party by our leader, Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi”.
“I want to use this medium to thank the Committee for an unbiased assessment that ended up putting me forward as the consensus candidate. I am not in any doubt that it took tremendous bravery for them to make this decision in the face of serious pressure, especially as my co-aspirants are all imminently qualified for the job”.
“The work ahead of us is immense but the path to victory is much clearer today than it was yesterday. We must therefore agree to stand as one body and work together to deliver APC in the forthcoming elections in order to give our dear Rivers State a new lease of life through purposeful and progressive governance that will bring about social cohesion and economic prosperity” he said.
