Rivers: Why I supported relocation of election tribunal to Abuja – Sen. Abe

By Musa Baba Adamu

Governorship candidate of

the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has said he supported the relocation of the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal from Port Harcourt to Abuja, because it was in the best interest of the people of the state.

This is as Abe alleged that members of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers were forced to adopt the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party

(PDP), Siminalaye Fubara, as the candidate of the state.

Abe, who spoke on a live television programme, said it would have been difficult for opposition political parties and their candidates to appear before the tribunal if it had sat in the State Capital.

He said: “I think that anybody who has been watching developments in Rivers State will see that there was really no way the tribunal could sit in Port Harcourt.

“Even the opportunity for members of the opposition parties to access INEC Office in Port Harcourt and be able to get materials or information from INEC to enable them present their petitions before the tribunal was physically and violently resisted.

“People were beaten up; nobody could go near the INEC Office. The place was kept under siege and the police allowed this to go for days. Nothing was done to bring it under control.

“So, clearly, the option of the tribunal actually sitting in Port Harcourt to do any meaningful work; anybody who has been watching events in the State knows that it was not even an option.

“There is no way anybody could have been able to go before the tribunal in Port Harcourt and be able to make a case. Even the tribunal is also made up of human beings, who also fear for their lives.

“The volatile political atmosphere in the State affected everybody and affected everything. I think that at the end of the day, the tribunal had no option than to relocate to Abuja, where we believe that everybody will get a better opportunity to be able to present their cases.”

Tinubu’s Transition C’ttee: Atiku’s Igbo sympathy crocodile tears – Okechukwu

By Christiana Ekpa

Achieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s attack on Presidentelect, Bola Tinubu’s transition committee as a demonstration of crocodile tears, medicine after death and political hypocrisy.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the recent election had decried the absence of any Igbo person on the membership list of Tinubu’s transition committee.

But, reacting to the observation, Okechukwu said Atiku’s attempt to play the advocate for Igbo interest amounted to shedding of Crocodile tears, recalling how the former Vice President brazenly breached the zoning arrangement in PDP and the zoning convention of president from north to south and vice versa.

Maintaining that Atiku’s attempts to stand in for Ndigbo is a clear example of medicine after death, Okechukwu noted that Atiku’s betrayal of Ndigbo during the PDP Presidential primary election was the deepest and unkindest cut.

Okechukwu stated: “I make bold to state that the former Vice President had long lost the moral high ground to parade himself or even pontificate as a friend of Ndigbo. It’s sheer hypocrisy and cannot wipe out the injury inflicted on Igbo members of PDP by our dear brother-in-law.

“One remembers with nostalgia the deep attachment of Ndigbo to PDP, even when His Excellency, Alex Ekwueme, the party’s pioneer chairman was shoved aside at the Jos convention in 1999. They repeated same, which was even more painful, when President Buhari nominated Rt. Hon. Chuba Okadigbo as his running mate in 2003 presidential election and Rt.Hon. Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as his running mate in 2007 presidential election.

“Even though I subscribe to inclusive politics, His Excellency,

Atiku Abubukar had all it takes to have supported Peter Obi for the 2023 PDP’s presidential ticket during the party’s primary election.

“But, here was a man who pulled out from PDP in 2014, defected to APC in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s breach of South to North rotation convention of presidency, claiming that Governor Nyesom Wike’s ambition compelled him to recontest the PDP presidential primary. That is a no brainer.”

On why he is peeved by Atiku’s objective observation on the transition committee list, Okechukwu, who is also the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), said nobody should fight any proxy war on behalf of Ndigbo, stressing that “Ndigbo are like the fabled Beetle, and nobody can kill the Beetle.”

“We are the fabled Beetle, we are Zikists and patriots per excellence more than any other tribe. Atiku was in his statement shedding mere Crocodile tears. I stand to be contradicted; we invest wherever we live and we reside in all the nooks and crannies of our dear country. Our stance remains, let the Eagle perch as well as the Dove.

“And, truly our concern is that no geopolitical zone is either developing or modernising at the required rate as our global peers are going,” Okechukwu submitted. He added: “Methinks that Atiku who publicly proclaimed naka sai naka and Namu! Namu! (Your own is your own to his northern brothers) is romancing Ndigbo for a possible run-off, in the assumption eventuality of cancellation of the poll.

“As a believer in politics of inclusion as the ligament bonding our dear nation, one will advise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu not resort to Tiwa! Tiwa! (My own is my own).”

Tinubu had recently forwarded a 13-man list, in addition to the earlier lists to the outgoing Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha with exclusion of the Southeast.