Lagos State All Progressives congress (APC) Vice Chairman, Chief Tunde Aboyade has appealed to social media influencers, bloggers and Press Secretaries to council chairmen in Alimosho federal Constituency to use their various platfoprms in promoting the common good of the party and not internal wrangling among members.

He made the appeal today during a parley organized as part of the state APC’s reconciliatory efforts held at ECO Events Centre, Egbeda Lagos.

Aboyade who commended the attendees for reporting the activities of the party thereby improving the popularity of the party however stated that some of their reports have had a negative impact on the party in Alimosho.

Aboyade who is the APC Vice Chairman of Lagos West Senatorial District reasoned that the press and most recently the social media are important to the society but cautioned that if they are not well managed, they can lead to unwanted situations like the Rwandan Genocide.

He disclosed that the new state APC executive under the chairmanship of Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi has a mandate to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party and he commenced activities to achieve this mandate by meeting party leaders and stakeholders who have agreed to sheath their swords and work for the progress of the party.

According to him “As you are all aware, we have a new leadership in APC State Executive and I can assure that the party hierarchy has the interest of all members at heart. For the past few days as directed by the state APC Chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi and in my position as the state APC Vice Chairman, Lagos West Senatorial District, I have commenced moves to reconcile all the aggrieved members of the party within Alimosho Constituency.

“I have met with party stakeholders to secure their trust. I will ensure I use every available dispute resolution means to bring everybody back together. Leadership is about trust and I promise to ensure all interests are well taken care of.”

He noted that if the media attacks and name-calling on different platforms stopped, the new party will have a conducive atmosphere to deliver on their mandate.
The APC Chieftain also used the forum to drum support for the 2023 presidential ambition of the APC National Leader Tinubu saying that we have no other candidate except Ashiwaju Tinubu and you should all use your various platforms to promote his candidacy and not allow this golden opportunity for the Southwest slip through our fingers.

He added that as party members, this is the time for all members to “calm down”, give peace a chance and work harmoniously towards making Ashiwaju Tinubu the next president of Nigeria in 2023.

In his words “At this juncture, I must remind us of the huge task before us as regards the 2023 elections. As active actors on the political scene, we have all seen the inauguration of different support groups for the 2023 Presidential ambition of our National Leader, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This is pointing to the direction that all hands must be on deck to achieve this crucial aim; hence, the need to give peace a chance so that we can all work together in support of the ambition.

“Alimosho APC must work harmoniously to contribute meaningfully to the ambition to our National Leader. I believe the only way we can do this is allow peace to reign because a house divided against itself cannot stand. As purveyors of information, your positive contributions will go a long way in making Ashiwaju our next President. With happenings in Nigeria’s political arena today, it is clear that the leading and most qualified candidate for president in 2023 is “Jagaban”. Ashiwaju Tinubu is the face of the South West going into 2023 and I appeal to you all to “calm down” and let’s get to work to make Ashiwaju Tinubu the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.

“The job at hand now is to unite, roll our sleeves and get to work to; interestingly, members from other political parties such as the People Democratic Party (PDP) are throwing their weight behind Ashiwaju Tinubu’s candidacy and the only thing we can do is to ensure that Alimosho Federal Constituency with it’s dense population deliver votes for our National Leader’s electoral victory in 2023, this is a golden opportunity for the South West to produce the president and you must all use your various platforms and write-ups to make it happen.”

The Lagos state APV vice Chairman further enjoined the attendees to give wide coverage the ongoing Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) exercise stressing that its is essential for APC members and other Alimosho constituents to register and obtain their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) so as to be eligible to vote during elections.

“Crucially, I passionately implore you all to use your various platforms to inform and educate APC members and Alimosho constituents to take part in the ongoing Continuous Voter’s Registration (CVR) exercise. It is germane to register and obtain Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs); your vote is your power and you can only vote with your PVCs. Anyone who wants to take part in the democratic process and enjoy the dividends of democracy must endeavour to register and vote during election.

“Please encourage APC members and other individuals or groups in your different Wards and LCDAs to seize the opportunity of the CVR programme so as to get registered to be eligible to vote during the next elections”, he advised.

Futher, Aboyade promised to use his wealth of experience and other dispute resolution mechanisms to put the party on the path of forgiveness, reconciliation and lasting resolution adding that with all efforts so far, positive results will be recorded soonest.

Similarly, the APC Chieftain called for concerted towards building back Alimosho and making it greta again and make it the heart of APC in the state

Erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has trashed claims by the Rivers State Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Ambassador Desmond Akawor, that former Rivers Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, will soon return to the People’s Democratic Party.

Recall that Akawor, had during a sparse gathering of members of the PDP in Ikwerre Local Government Area, announced to his audience that the Minister of Transportation and South-South Leader of the APC, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, would make a comeback to the People’s Democratic Party any time soon.

An excerpt from the very deceptive and widely publicized opinion reads “One day, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, your son, will come back to his family, which is PDP. He has to come back because he was a speaker. Where he went, he went for a reason. He went to remove President Jonathan. Jonathan has gone, so he should come back to his party. I am saying it again. My brother, my friend, the bosom friend of our Governor, Nyesom Wike, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, come back home.”

In a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, Chief Eze counseled Akawo and those who share in his wildest imagination to quickly seek the service of health professionals for medical examinations to ascertain their health status and subject themselves to treatment where necessary, because according to him, only young men with sophisticated health issues, defective sensory neurons and blurred reasoning will share in such a blunt view.

“While I lack the power to stop Ambassador Akwaor from dreaming of the Super Minister and Minister of the Decade, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, erstwhile Governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of Transportation returning to the sinking Peoples Democratic Party, I wish to counsel him to try to treat himself of malaria as nothing will cause the Minister to return to a party that did everything to destroy his political feats and personality.”

The Party Chief said Chief Akawor, who earned his Ambassadorial appointment on the footing of his roles in the satanic collaboration among the Jonathans,Wike, Obua, and others, which led to forceful exit of Amaechi from the PDP, may just be scamping alongside

others, for the return of Amaechi, in order to give credibility to the party already destroyed by Governor Wike and his inklings.

It is unfortunate and in fact pricking on the conscience for Akawor, whose inputs in the broad day robbery that tore the Rivers PDP in pieces, to say Amaechi’s motive for leaving the party was chiefly to remove President Jonathan, and having succeeded, he should return to the PDP.

For avoidance of doubt and in straightening the records, Chief Eze said Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has nothing to do with the ouster of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the President of Nigeria but was forced out of the PDP by those he described as party hawks and jobbers who felt Amaechi was a threat to their undemocratic antecedents.

The famous statement “We’ll arrest Amaechi by next year - Wike” credited to Chief Nyesom Wike, then a junior Minister in the administration of Dr. Jonathan Goodluck by 2014 still suffices and speaks more on the ploy to trick the then Governor to swim in muddy waters.

Then Supervisory Minister of Education had said that Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi will be arrested after President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration as winner of the 2015 presidential election.

“Once INEC announces the victory of President Jonathan, we will immediately shut down the Port Harcourt International Airport and all land and sea borders in Rivers State to prevent Governor Amaechi from escaping. Does he think we don’t know that he is planning to run away? But he and his cohorts will not succeed.

All they can do thereafter is to lock themselves in the government house and at the appropriate time we will go there and pick them up one after the other. Believe me, governor Amaechi will surely account for all our monies that he is frittering away now”.

The Deputy National Chairman of the PDP then Prince Uche Secondus, who also spoke at the event said that Governor Amaechi is a temporary occupant in government house and that PDP will not allow him to choose his successor in 2015 because Rivers State is for PDP. He has taken all our money to Lagos to develop APC.

With this type of threat by the over ambitious and deadly Wike, one may be forced to ask, “is Amaechi a stone or a tree that is been threatened to be cut but stood still without running. Amaechi has to find a way to survive this unwarranted onslaught, so he left.

Eze recalled with nostalgia how the hawks running the administration of Dr. Jonathan kicked Amaechi out of PDP.

Let me state that the obvious desperation of the PDP leadership to completely destroy Amaechi led to his departure, alongside five other PDP governors, to form the New PDP, with five of them later joining the mega opposition political party, the All Progressives Congress.

The Factors that forced Amaechi out of PDP are thus under listed:

1.

When the PDP national leadership undemocratically decided to suspend Governor Amaechi from the party without any sound reason on May 27, 2013 and was to follow it up with expulsion, Amaechi the victim resorted to the courts, once again, to stop them from taking any further step on his case until he decided to join APC. The suspension of Amaechi from the party was agreed during an unscheduled and unusually early morning meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party at the residence of the then National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. The meeting commenced at 8:00 am and came two days ahead of the regular meeting of the NWC, which normally holds on Wednesdays. It was also three days after Amaechi beat the odds with his re-election as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. He had been allegedly opposed by the PDP Governors’ Forum (PDP-GF) ahead of the election.

It was this suspension of Governor Amaechi from PDP, not minding all that he did to uplift the party that started the decimation of PDP and its reduction from a ruling national political party to an opposition regional political party.

It is said that during the intervening days, many interventions were made to save the crisis and resolve the matter. Important national leaders including Retired General Yakubu Gowon tried to stop the departure of Amaechi knowing it was the only way to stop the exodus. But the more such efforts were made, the harder those who did not want Amaechi in the party worked to push him out.

For the education of Ambassador Akwaor and his misguided fellows, let me call on Amaechi to explain by himself why he joined APC.

Explaining why he joined APC, Governor Amaechi said: “Unfortunately, recent events within the PDP have given me reason to reconsider our collective interest as people of the South-South and, indeed as Rivers people. At various times, as the one whom you gave your mandate, I had cause to complain about the marginalization of our state and our people, despite our huge contribution to the national coffers and our unflinching commitment and support for the ruling PDP. While the political and economic importance of Rivers State cannot be contested, we continue to hold the shorter end of the stick.

“A few instances may suffice: Our demand that the Federal Government return oil wells belonging to Rivers State to us has gone unheeded and been treated with levity under this administration. Rather, our oil wells have been ceded to Bayelsa, Abia and Akwa Ibom states. Even after we got a judgment that the oil wells were wrongly ceded to Akwa Ibom State and should be returned to us; only dry wells that were no longer producing oil were returned.

“In the specific case of the Soku oil wells, despite a decision reached that the monies should remain in an escrow account till all matters concerning it are resolved, the Federal government continues to pay neighbouring Bayelsa State the revenues meant for Rivers State in a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is indeed noteworthy that we have made several representations formally and informally on this matter.

“A second instance is the total absence of federal presence in Rivers State. The ‘National Good Governance Tour’ provided a good opportunity for the Federal Government to showcase its presence in Rivers State. The tour, if nothing else, proved that there was not much to show in a state that is the cash cow of the federation. The East-West Road remains abandoned, work has been deliberately slow on the Port Harcourt International Airport, the third busiest airport in the country, while all airports started along with it have long been completed and commissioned. The Bonny-Bomu Road that leads to the only functional liquefied natural gas project remains uncompleted. In the midst of all these, our administration went ahead to fix federal roads to the tune of N103 billion. Several representations and letters after, not one kobo has been repaid. The Federal Government is actively discouraging investments in Rivers State.”

Amaechi at another forum stated, “They have become so desperate that they have gone to hire Joseph Mbu to serve as the political wing of the PDP in Rivers State. I pray to God to save Rivers State so that those thieves will not come to power and steal your money. We want to confront the Nigerian Police. When you hear impunity, it is because you allow it. There is no revolution without blood. From now till election, we should mobilize and confront the Nigerian police. If they say they are ready for debate, tell them I am ready. They should go to the National Assembly and summon me.”

Other instances that made the departure of Amaechi from PDP imperative are the following:

Posting and encouraging the excesses of the tyrannical Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu, during these inglorious days in the state.

Supporting every unimaginable act of impunity in the state, including the plot by five State Assembly members to impeach the speaker in a House of 31 members, with the hope of impeaching Amaechi thereafter. This led to the closure of the courts but they turned around to blame the victim, Amaechi.

Seizing and grounding the planes belonging to the state for no just cause. Shutting down the robust security architecture that was to save the region and oil facilities.

Harassing and intimidating the duly elected Governor of Rivers State for no just cause, and even supporting the splitting of the Governors Forum into two, to ensure that Governor Amaechi, who was duly elected by his colleagues, does not have an easy reign as the chairman of the forum.

Other factors are:

1. Refusal to refund to the state government over N130 billion used in the dualisation of Ikwerre-Owerri Road approved by late President Yar’Adua, and other federal roads in the state executed by the state to ease the suffering of the people of Rivers State. It took the APC controlled FG and President Muhammadu Buhari to refund at least N79BN of it which fell into the laps of the same man who did everything against such payments to the state. What an irony.

2. Ceding of oil wells belonging to Rivers to Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Abia states, to ensure that the revenue accruing to the state is reduced. To this day, this has pushed Rivers State to the third state in the Niger Delta behind Delta and Akwa Ibom, but not far ahead of Bayelsa State that was far below Rivers State.

3. Abandoned construction of the Port Harcourt International Airport after completing other airports started at the same time with it. The airport thus became an eyesore and declared as one of the worst airports in the entire world. Pictures of the state of the airport attached then explained the level of hatred President Jonathan had for Rivers State and her people.

4. Posting and encouraging the excesses of the tyrannical Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu, during his inglorious days in the state.

5. Supporting or remaining silent over the impunity of daily killing, maiming of members of Rivers APC by the PDP and their agents’ killer squads.

6. President Jonathan released all N25 billion that accrued from the principle of derivation from the five Soku oil wells that rightly belong to Rivers State and kept in reserve for Rivers State and Bayelsa State, to Bayelsa, his home state.

Eze further highlighted that the world maybe astounded to learn that not minding all that Amaechi went through in the hands of Jonathan; he ensured that a slot in the State Executive Council was given to Jonathan throughout his eight years tenure as the Governor of Rivers State.

In conclusion, Chief Eze said contrary to the defective reasoning of Ambassador Akwaor and those sponsoring him, Amaechi never joined APC in order to oust Jonathan and his administration from the centre but undemocratic elements like Chief Nyesom Wike were the architects of his ouster after forcing and imposing on Amaechi all his actions in 2014 in order to join progressive forces to rescue Nigeria from the hands of the likes of Wike.

If there is anybody to blame over the exit of Dr. Jonathan from Government, it is Wike and his fellow hawks who, for the pursuit of selfish goals, plotted and ruined the administration of Jonathan, relegating him to the background and keeping him at bay on current happenings in the polity.

Finally, Eze counsels Akwaor to stop deceiving Governor Wike and help him to start preparing his handover note for an APC led Government come 2023 as Rivers State and her people are totally tired of the confused PDP Government in the State.