APC meeting ends in chaos, attendants refuse allegiance to Amaechi

The high profile meeting of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers state yesterday ended in chaos as most of the stakeholders in attendance which included 23 local government chairmen of the party, allegedly refused to fill and sign forms pledging their allegiance to the Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

The meeting which took place at the APC state secretariat, along Forces Avenue, GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt, was convened at the instance of Mrs. Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, former Administrator of the Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority, under former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, allegedly to water down Senator Magnus Ngei Abe’s quest to contest for the 2019 gubernatorial elections on the platform of the party.

Other stakeholders who attended the meeting included assistants to the party’s local government chairmen, the leadership of former APC councillors forum and the ward chairmen of the party, former chairmen of councils, elected under the past APC government and some former aides of Amaechi while he was governor of the state.

Daily Times reliably gathered that Mrs. Cookey-Gam, former Secretary to the State Government, SSG, as well Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice under former Governor Peter Odili, had called the meeting ostensibly to promote the APC’s drive for the on-going nation-wide registration of voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

It was gathered that the Rivers State Chairman of the APC, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya presided during meeting. According to the source, at the close of the meeting, each of those present were giving forms and asked to append their signatures, to formally proclaim their allegiance to the Minister of Transportation, Amaechi, leader of the party in Rivers State.

The source further narrated that only seven members of all those who attended the meeting signed the form. According to the source, “the meeting ended in disarray as most of those present felt the move to intimidate or force members to pledge loyalty to Amaechi was unnecessary.”

“We followed Amaechi from the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, to the APC. We left the party through which we attained political power and joined the APC that had not won an elective position. What better way to pledge our loyalty to the leadership of the party?

“Some of us lost our bids for re-election under the aegis of the APC. We took our defeat in good faith because every decision, they say, has a price. Although, deliberations on our participation on the on-going voters’ registration had been concluded, the form signing session ended in disarray.”

According to the source, “I fear for the APC in Rivers State. The national leadership should quickly intervene in the leadership crisis that is brewing in the state. All this huffing and puffing in the leadership of the APC in Rivers State is anchored, firmly, on who gets the party’s governorship ticket in 2019.”

The Secretary of the APC in the Rivers State, Mr. Emeka Bekee, who was present at the meeting with members of the State Executive Committee, SEC, of the party, confirmed that the state Chairman, Dr. Ikanya, “actually presided over a meeting at the state secretariat, on Monday.”

He also affirmed the categories of party members that were addressed by the state chairman of the party. But denied that forms requesting the signatures of attendees to underscore their loyalty to Amaechi was given out by the state chairman.

He stated: “The meeting you are referring to actually held at the state secretariat of the party. We discussed how we can collectively mobilised our members to go out and sensitise those who have not been registered by INEC to endeavour to do so.

“Nobody was given a form to fill to pledge his or her loyalty to the minister of transportation. I am not aware of that. Yesterday, people were calling me, saying they heard that I was giving out N10 million to people to pledge loyalty to Amaechi. That is not correct.”

When he was asked whether he threatened ward chairmen and councillors from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area whom he had earlier invited to his residence, in Port Harcourt, on Monday before the expansive meeting, with expulsion from the party if they refused to sign the form affirming their support for Amaechi, he retorted: “I don’t have such powers.”

It is now gathered that barely 24 hours after, the stakeholders who attended the meeting at the APC secretariat in Rivers State, where most attendees stayed away from signing the allegiance form, designed to elicit their loyalty to the minister of transportation, leader of the APC in Etche Local Government Area, Chief Allwell Onyesoh, was suspended from the party.

Chief Onyesoh is said to have been critical of alleged moves by the leadership of the party in the state to scuttle Senator Abe’s willingness to vie for the 2019 governorship of the state on the platform of the APC.