From Blessing Ibunge, Port Harcourt
Supporters of the former representative of Rivers South-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Sen. Magnus Abe, have been advised to shun today’s (Saturday) congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC), following their exclusion in the purchase of the party form.
Senator Abe who made the appeal while addressing his supporters yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, noted that if they wanted the party to be united , they would have behave differently. He urged his supporters to maintain peace.
Reacting to the statement credited to the leader of the team for the party’s sale of nomination form, Amina Gamawa, on the issue, Abe said her presence in the state was to create obstruction amongst party members who wanted to participate in the Congress.
Senator Abe who is a member of NNPC governing board, noted: “If you go to participate in their congress, it would be a problem. And I hear all across the state, people are hiring both known and unknown gunmen. That will not be our portion.
“So far in this party, nobody has died. And I don’t want that to change. So, please, let us be calm. We will follow the directives of the national and we will make our position on what has happened in the state (Rivers) known.
“We will take it systematically. So, we will make what has happened in Rivers State known to the national. And, since they (national) have promised that they would intervene, that they are coming, we will wait for that intervention.”
Abe stated that every attempt by his faction to restore peace in the party has proved abortive.
He declared: ‘”I want to inform you at this point, that every effort that we have made to try to bring peace in the party so far, has proved abortive. It has not worked.
“And it has not worked not because of anything, but simply because we have not been able to find the right partner that would make the peace to work, because only one person cannot bring peace. But, we remain undaunted.
“Peace is not an event. Peace is a process and processes take time because a lot of people are hurt, and a lot of people need healing.
“Moving to this present congress that is supposed to hold on Saturday, we have made every effort to use the opportunity of this congress to make to rest the divisions and contradictions within the party.
“You would remember that there is really no crisis in this party. The crisis in the party is Minister said that anybody that is with Senator Abe is no longer a member of the APC; and so, cannot be entitled to any opportunity or privilege with the All Progressives Congress.
“But, we have explained to people that, that is not what the constitution of the party says. That was what created the issue the last time, when he came and said that nobody who is with Senator Abe should be given form to participate in the congress. That was the origin of the crisis.
“And this time, we tried everyway that is possible to see that we don’t have that same problem. Even if we do not believe that the process of the congress will be fair, we feel that if the process of participation itself is fair, that will help to heal wounds across the state and give us a new opportunity to rebuild the party.”
