As hope trickles in for the All Progressives Congress (APC) signalinga possible return to the tracks ahead of the 2023 general elections, thanks to the sledge hammer approach adopted by President Muhammadu Buhari and his party’s National Executive Council (NEC) to dissolve the National Working Committee (NWC) at the chambers of the Federal Executive Council last Thursday, discordant tunes have continued to resonate among the household of the party in Rivers State.
While the two warring factions of former Rivers State Governor and now Transportation Minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and that of Senator Magnus Abe, claim they are ‘comfortable’ with the action of the President, they have refused to sheathe their swords but rather heating up contentions over the party’s Caretaker Chairmanship of Hon. Igo Aguma.
Abe’s media aide, Kadilo Kabari has insisted that Aguma is a product of the law following a Port Harcourt High Court judgment delivered by Justice George Omereji which legitimized his position as APC’s Caretaker Committee Chairman in the State.
“The Igo Aguma’s leadership is the law. It is a product of a court judgment, not an order or some interim process or illegal gathering of some politically spent forces. His leadership has been ratified by the National Working Committee of the party before the dissolution.
“Rt. Hon. Igo Aguma’s leadership is a child of necessity with a two-point agenda of reconciliation and conduct of congresses. On the contrary, the so-called Sokonte Davies leadership is a child of unnecessity, a vestige of dictatorship in a democracy”, Kabari said.
He blamed the problems of the APC in Rivers State to ‘our leader’, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi. According to him, “At present he said he is on ‘sidon look’. I wonder when a lion assumes the position of sidon look, that lion has assumed the position of a cat. We have had a scenario where the party had no candidate and leadership asked members, against the position of the NWC to go and vote for another party. Members would not allow the destruction of our party again”.
Kabari fumed that his heart bled ‘seeing another ugly monster rear its ugly head of disunity and division at a time when well-meaning members of our party should explore and exploit the golden opportunity to put our acts right and present a united and formidable option for Rivers people’.
But the duo of Hon (Barr) Reginald Ukwuoma and Hon. (Barr) Nnamdi Wechie have disagreed with Kabari and rather echoed the sentiment expressed by Andrew Uchendu to the effect that the Igo Aguma, a former member of the House of Rep’s Caretaker Chairmanship is founded on illegality.
While conceding that Aguma is a product of the court, they stated that the court never conferred on Aguma overriding powers to’constitute himself into a sole administrator, relegating, abandoning and disregarding the committee, and taking critical decisions affecting the party all by himself’.
“Where did he get the purported powers to suspend Hon. Victor Giadom? There are procedures for suspension because Article 21 of APC constitution provided procedures for suspension. Again, was it the caretaker committee that appointed Wogu Boms to be the National Deputy Secretary of the party? This is the height of embarrassment because the person they say was purportedly replaced was the same place who convened the NEC that dissolved the APC NWC”, they posited.
The three Rivers APC chieftains who were guests of Silverbird 93.7 FM interactive programme, ‘View Point’ in Port Harcourt on Saturday, exchanged banters, with the Rotimi Amaechi loyalists even condemning Aguma’s contempt suit filed against Hon. Andrew Uchendu and Hon. Sokonte Davies.
