Ahead of this weekend’s governorship election in Rivers State, the Igbo Community in the state have reiterated their support for Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
The group which comprises of all Igbos from the five Eastern States resident in the 23 local councils of Rivers State reassured him of their support come 18th March, 2023.
The Igbo Community in a statement signed by HRM, Eze Standhope Ogadinma Okeorji, BOT Chairman and Ikechukwu Edwards Sisiogu, Secretary said they are prepared to win the forthcoming election.
They insisted that they are the main body of Igbo Community in the state.
The statement reads:
“ We want to assure you that this body is the main Igbo Community in Rivers State, fighting for the interest and welfare of Ndigbo in Rivers State. We endorsed you six (6) months ago when you were not on the ballot, and came to reaffirm your endorsement three (3) months ago, but then these groups that are running up and down looking for whom to endorse now were still asleep, and since then we have been working, going to the news media with every boldness, but now that dollars are flying everywhere, different people are forming groups to endorse different candidates just to collect dollars, but we are determined to stand with you without fear or favour.
Sir for your information, our mother union is called Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, but this Igbo Community is for the five (5) Igbo speaking states of the Southeast region of Nigeria resident in Rivers State.
“After voting massively for Governor Wike and PDP in 2019, Ndigbo were rejected and even asked to collect back their votes, he also claimed that he is not an Igbo man and has nothing to do with Igbos. No one here will deny the issues in Ikeokwu, the story of Oyigbo, the taskforce operational style in Rivers State and Mile 1 Market, the worst and the most recent one is that Governor Wike said that he has no problem with Peter Obi who is also from South but Peter Obi’s votes in the last Presidential election in Rivers State was transferred to another just to show that Government Wike hates Nidigbo passionately.
Sir we are here to prove to you, that not all Igbos are in love with money, rather we are here to enthrone good governance.
“For APC and their candidate, Tonye Cole, whether he is our grandson or not Igbo Community have taken a stand and our decision is firm, no going back. Former Minister of Transportation who said that Igbo blood runs in his vein could not remember all this when he was governor of Rivers State, he did not give Ndigbo their abandoned properties as governor even when he was speaker, someone raised the motion of the abandoned property but he waved it away. As a Minister of Transport, he was able to approve all the railways projects in the North and South West and denied Ndigbo in his railway coverage. But now he can remember Ndigbo, because he is looking for votes from Ndigbo; because his stooge is contesting election, Ndigbo are not fools.
“Ndigbo came out massively to help Labour Party because of Peter Obi’s candidacy not because he is an Igbo man, but because he is the best candidate to help achieve a new Nigeria, he is in Court now and we believe that the will of the people will prevail, but our business with Labour Party ended at the Presidential poll as we are bent on enthroning good governance across boards.
“We reaffirm our earlier endorsement of Distinguished Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, the SDP Governorship Candidate as our choice for 2023 Governorship election and urge our people to vote for him on Saturday, the 18th day of March, 2023.
“Finally, we are not here for money, but we are here because we believe in you. We should have gone to collect Dollars from the highest bidders but we are here to enthrone good governance, because we know that you have the competence, the capacity and compassion to your fellow human beings, and most especially, for fairness, equity and justice for the Ogoni People, we will win this election with you, God helping us”.
