A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwumeka Eze and member of APC Legacy Projects Media Committee, says the circumventive and comic political analogy of the former Rivers South East representative at the Red Chambers, Sen. Magnus Abe, on his gloomy and unpropitious governorship bid and the emergence and likely victory of the Rivers APC Governorship Candidate, Pst. Tonye Cole, at the polls, squarely qualifies the former as a celebrity-clown of the Nigerian movie industry- the Nollywood.
Reacting to comments credited to Sen. Abe while addressing an army of people preyed and entrapped in his political merchandise, recently in Beera Community, wherein he boasted that he would be contesting the 2023 governorship election under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) even when Pst. Architect Tonye Cole has long won the guber ticket of the party and his name submitted to the country’s election umpire, Eze said there will one day be an end to deceit.
Sen. Abe was also quoted as stating that no person that is not known to Rivers people and is hand-picked by one man, would become the governor of the state.
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However in a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, Chief Eze said having boycotted the governorship primaries of the party in the state and directing his band of followers to do same for no justifiable and cogent reasons, , Abe has no business nosing around the concerns of the party like a snooping rabbit, particularly as it relates to the party’s guber ticket which legitimately fell in the hands of a renowned business tycoon, Pst. Tonye Cole, whose decades of industry experience will translate into massive investments in capital projects for the state.
Eze highlighted that to the the best of his knowledge, this is the List of Governorship Candidates That Emerged From Primary Elections Monitored By the INEC As At 8th June 2022.
- Accord Party (A)
CHIEF DUMO LULU-BRIGGS
- Action Alliance (AA)
Comr. BENJAMIN OLIMINI ABEDNEGO
- African Action Congress (AAC)
DR JOSEPH OBELE
- African Democratic Congress (ADC)
MR TONTE IBRAYE
- African Democratic Party (ADP)
MR VICTOR FINGESI
- All Progressives Congress (APC)
ARC. TONYE COLE
- All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
PRINCE UGO BEKE
8. Allied Peoples Movement (APM)
REV’D DR BARR EKWU INNOCENT
- Labour Party (LP)
COMR. (MRS) BEATRICE ITUBO
- New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)
- National Rescue Movement (NRM)
MR. SOBOMABO JACKRICH
- Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
SIR SIMINIALAYIN FUBARA
- Peoples Redemption Party (PRP)
HON EMIYAREI ETETE SOBERE
- Social Democratic Party (SDP)
- Young Progressive Party (YPP)
Mr. DANAGOGO WENIKE-BRIGGS
- Zenith Labour Party (ZLP)
No candidate
- Action Peoples Party (APP)
Dr. LESSI GBOROGBOSI
- Boot Party (BP).
Based on the above, one of the most brilliant Legal Practitioners from Rivers State, Barr Eli Sogbeye interpreted the above thus, “from the above, it is clear that it is only the Zenith Labour Party that the INEC made a declaration of fielding no candidate for the office of Governor at the forthcoming poll.
For the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Social Democratic Party and Boot Party, there is no such declaration by the Electoral umpire.
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That said, if any Rivers man or woman tells you that he is on the ballot without his or her name on this list, a lie was presented with impunity to you. If he or she claims they would be on the ballot without evidence of challenging the processes that produced the candidates of the respective political parties in Court within the time allowed by the Electoral Act 2022, a disrespect has been served you and your intellect.
Take heed therefore lest you be deceived by any hidden “candidate”.
Eze noted with sadness with heavy heart that Senator Magnus Abe though a sound Law Maker and qualified Legal Practitioner seems to be totally ignorant that for anyone to emerge as a candidate based on the provisions of the Electoral Act, the person must have participated in a primary election of which he never participated in any political party Primaries to the knowledge of Nigerians including his misguided and blind followers.
Eze further highlighted that the provisions of Section 33 of the 2022 Electoral Act, a political party cannot remove or substitute a candidate that emerged from a valid primary so where did Abe derived his stand that he will be in the ballot come 2023, Eze queried
Besides, the person must be on the list of contestants sent by a political party to INEC and must have participated in the gubernatorial election on the 8th June 2022 when the election was conducted.
“With the conclusion of the elective primaries of the parties and the close of deadline for submission of the candidates for gubernatorial elections based on the guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the process for the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria has commenced in earnest.
“Section 84 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 provides that “A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this Act shall hold primaries for the aspirants to all elective positions which shall be monitored by the Commission”.
“Section 84 (13) of the Act further provides that “Where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of this Act in the conduct of its primary, its candidates for election shall not be included in elections for the particular position in issue”.
“These provisions and others in the Electoral Act aim to ensure that only candidates who win duly conducted primaries are presented for elections. Unlike in previous electoral law, the new law authorizes INEC to disqualify candidates who did not emerge from a duly conducted primary which INEC monitored.
‘For Abe to continue with his long-held deceit, misleading and misinforming the youths over his inordinate and ill-conceived governorship ambition to the extent of asking them to mobilise themselves in what he teemed Project SMA 2023 under the APC, simply puts him in the status of a super star in the Clown business and on that note, I wish to urge the Nollywood to engage him as a matter of urgency as he has the talent to improve the industry and make it compete favourably with Bollywood and other sister industries.’
Chief Eze recalled the huge damages Abe has done to the politics of Rivers State especially his obnoxious treachery that led to the exclusion of the Rivers APC from the ballot and called on his compadres to dissuade him from continuing to ridicule the image of the APC Presidential Candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on whose name he has been hypnotizing his political victims.
Eze reiterated that no matter the negative efforts of Abe and his misguided associates and supporters directed against the former Rivers Governor, he can never be on an equal pedestal with Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who is the South South APC Leader.
The party chief maintains that if Abe truly wants to remain an APC member and pursue the desires and progress of the party, he must fall in line and respect the leadership of the party in the State.
Eze called on the good people of Rivers State to unite and salvage the State from the corrupt administration of Gov. Nyesom Wike by queuing massively behind Tonye Cole ahead of the 2023 governorship elections in the state.