APC Yet to Learn from Experience in Rivers, Says Abe

Ernest Chinwo

A former lawmaker, representing Rivers South-east Senatorial district, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has expressed regret that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was yet to learn valuable lessons from events that cost the party the opportunity to vie for positions in Rivers State during the last general elections.

He made this assertion yesterday, just as he ruled out any form of on-going battle in the Niger Delta Development

Commission (NDDC), insisting that calls for the removal of appointees in the commission were diversionary.

Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, Abe allegedly traced the genesis of the woes of the APC in Rivers State to the “unconstitutional decision of the leader of the APC in Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, to exclude and expel members of the party sympathetic to the ambition of Senator Magnus

Abe from the party.”

He said it was unfortunate that the party was still toeing the same path even in its attempt to rebuild the party after the general elections disaster, adding that the party had failed to properly consult stakeholders before announcing dates for congresses, the same thing it did that caused the crisis in the first place.

He said he did not have any personal problems with Amaechi and would ordinarily communicate with him but for the barrier created by the allure of power.

Abe said: “When I had my thanksgiving service, the Archbishop who presided over the service, asked me if I had invited all those who had issues with me. He said I must invite all of them, including the governor, including the minister. He directed me to invite all those I have issues with, saying I should not come to the house of God with a divided mind.