The party, our correspondent reports, has been embroiled in endless crisis as a result of irreconcilable political differences between the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe over the APC 2018 ward and state congresses.
Problems started when Senator Abe and his supporters claimed that they were disenfranchised during the party’s congresses. The matter led to a protracted legal tussle that restrained APC from fielding candidates for both governorship, House of Assembly and National Assembly elections in 2019 in the state.
The apex court, which gave final verdict in the matter, ruled that until the party organised a congress that will include all its members, it cannot field a candidate in any election in the state.
Efforts by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party through various reconciliation committees set up to settle its aggrieved members, met a brick wall as both Amaechi and Abe, the key actors, refused to shift ground.
The recent caretaker committee set up by the National Executive Committee of the party to conduct congresses has ignited fresh crisis as the aggrieved members have approached the court to question the legitimacy of the committee.
A chieftain of the party, Igo Aguma, has gone to court to question the legitimacy of the committee.
The crisis rocking the APC, however is giving some prominent members of the party sleepless nights.
A stakeholders meeting held recently in Port Harcourt to address the crisis in the party does not seem to have found an amicable solution to the protracted imbroglio rocking the party.
The convener of the meeting, Hon Emmanuel Deyaa, a chieftain of APC and a former member of the House of Representatives said no matter how much they quarrelled among themselves, peace remained the best option for the party to move forward.
Deyaa said the meeting was aimed at charting a new course and finding amicable way of resolving the crisis in the party.
A former lawmaker who represented Ikwerre Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Chidi Wihioka, who was at the meeting, said as long as members of the APC continued to misbehave, the problem of the party will remain unresolved. He emphasised that nobody was bigger than the party and as such a leader must behave well to earn support and loyalty of members.
Igo Aguma, another APC chieftain and former House of Representatives member, said he went to court to challenge the caretaker committee constituted by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party, because there is no way an illegal CTC can conduct a legal congress.
Another APC chieftain and former commissioner for Agriculture in Rivers State, Hon Emma Chinda, however faulted the process of organising the peace meeting without involving the principal actors, Amaechi and Abe.
He equally picked holes in organising such meeting without involving the partys national secretariat.
“The proceedings of the meeting clearly showed that there is a hidden agenda. A situation where you are brokering peace and there is attempt to exclude the party leader, in person of Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, or even Senator Magnus Abe, clearly shows that the organisers are only merchandizing.
How can you unite the party without talking to the national secretariat, Amaechi and Abe?,” Chinda queried.
On his part, Abe said no member of the APC in Rivers State is dispensable or indispensable.
For the party to rise above its present predicament, it requires all hands to be on deck, he said.
He decried a situation where stakeholders of the party threw tantrums at each other, noting that such behaviour could not pull the party out of its political doldrums. He urged the leaders to desist from such unruly acts.
The senator said in an atmosphere of mutual respect and acceptance, members should be able to make compromises that could move the party forward.
I believe that any sensible politician who understands politics and can see where the APC in Rivers State is today after all the sacrifices that members have made over the years, would be very unhappy and I am very, very unhappy.
“We need peace in the party and if we can change our language and stop talking the way we are doing, do things differently, we can have different results.
“I have been circumspect about my choice of words when talking about Rotimi Amaechi and have said it over and over again that he is the leader of the party. But, a leader must lead in such a manner that your supporters and followers can have confidence in the leadership. Leadership should not be designed to hurt anybody or group.
The origin of this whole problem was the disobedience to court orders that brought the face-off between Rivers APC and the Nigerian judiciary. It has nothing to do with a third party. It has to do with behaviour of the people in the party.”
“Wike was the governor of the state in 2016 during the senatorial rerun, he fought us to a point that, nobody was campaigning but I was campaigning and I won,” he said.
The senator further said: “If you are living in an area that is close to earthquakes, you dont go and build your house with bamboo sticks because at the slightest shake of the ground the sticks will fall apart. We know that we have a formidable political opponent with a large war chest in Rivers State.
“We must build a structure that will overcome him because if our structure is not strong enough to overcome him, then everything they are shouting Wike, Wike this and Wike that, do you need Wike to cooperate with you before you win.”
Until the APC puts its house in order, the chances of it participating in the 2023 election may be another mirage.
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