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Rivers APC Crisis: The Good, The Ugly In Abe, Amaechi Feud

…“Accuse Selves Of Rigging Re-Run Election

Even though there seems to be no end to the lingering political fight between the two former allies, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe, the face-off seems to be a blessing in disguise, especially by providing insight into past events in which the former friends, now turned enemies worked together and stood on one side between the truth and falsehood, between justice and injustice and between the people and their mandate etc.

John Milton, a political philosopher and advocate of libertarianism must be right when he said, “The truth only comes out when there is a conflict of  voices”.

implicit in this proposition is that conflict is not a negative concept after all. Far from that, conflict has fine attributes among which is the emergence of truth after a long reign of falsehood.

Though justice gotten based on falsehood may be hard to retrieve, yet truth whenever it emerges should be acknowledged and celebrated for record purposes.

It is against this backdrop that the open letter written by Senator Magnus Abe, the senator representing Rivers South East Senatorial District and a factional Governorship candidate of the crisis ridden All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State to the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is instructive and cannot be dismissed as just a passing comment. What a confirmation of the fact that what goes around must come around.

Hon. Abe’s letter though partly emotionalized but admittedly necessitated by the urge for fair hearing and to put the records straight, was centred on some allegations made by Rotimi Amaechi against him.

It is no longer news that since Magnus Abe insisted on contesting for the Office of Governor of Rivers State on the platform of the APC against the decision of the leader of the party in the State, Rotimi Amaechi, there has been no love lost between the two.

Every public forum has provided an opportunity for the duo to allege, accuse, smear, refute or deny statements made by one against the other in previous fora including secrets shared by the two power brokers.

But the most fascinating was the one bordering on the senatorial re-run election in the State that sent the then incumbent, Olaka Nwogu of the Peopes Democratic Party, PDP, packing and in his place, installed Senator Magnus Abe  as the ultimate winner.

Abe’s controversial victory dragged from the elections petition tribunal to the appeal court. The final judgement was in favour of Hon. Abe on which ticket he continues to represent not only his Ogoni kinsmen but also the other Rivers South-East constituents in the National Assembly.

Three years after, and about six months remaining to complete the four year tenure, the seeming truth of how the controversial victory was procured has emerged even though the chief protagonist, and benefactor, Magnus Abe has dismissed the revelation as unfounded and one made in bad faith.

But does the denial completely nullify the revelation made by no other but the leader of the APC in the state, a serving Minister of Transportation and President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 Presidential election Director-General, and Ambassador Plenipotentiary, Rotimi Amaechi himself?

According to Rt. Hon. Amaechi, it was Hon. Victor Giadom, a former Works Commissioner under his administration as the Executive Governor of the State and later, executive chairman of Gokana Local Government Council, Abe’s immediate local government area that made possible for Magnus Abe to secure the controversial victory.

How? Rotimi Amaechi reportedly said it was Victor Giadom that brought a gun and stuck it to the head of the electoral officer and threatened to kill him before results were changed in Abe’s favour, an allegation Hon. Abe said was everything but true.

Irrespective of whether or not the allegation is true, in societies where men are real men, in societies where the spelling of democracy remains D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y, the allegation as weighty as it is cannot just be dismissed with a wave of the hand.

If Donald Trump the incumbent American President could be investigated for allegedly having a link with Russia during the campaigns that culminated into his election for purposes of ascertaining the fact and taking precautionary measures against similar future occurrences, why must Amaechi’s allegation of a stolen mandate of the people by a regime that prides itself on anti-corruption fortress not be taken seriously.

Such investigation, even if eventually confirmed as  a war propaganda which in a maverick political enclave such as Nigeria’s, is unarguably an extension of politics, must be noted for the kind of character alleging and the kind of person alleged for future references and for the people to take note of, especially as the 2019 general elections are by the corner.

Affliction, must not rise the second time. But while we congratulate Rt. Hon. Amaechi and Hon. Abe for lightening their hearts by sharing their secrets with the public, we however regret the ones they cannot let out, for the greatest pains are those you can tell no one.

 

 

 

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