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Factional stakeholders in the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have met in Port Harcourt canvassing peace and unity with a view to ending the political crisis in the party.
Former member of the House of Representatives, Emma Deeyah convened the meeting, which was attended by party leaders and members loyal to Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe.
A former Attorney General of the state under Amaechi’s administration, Wogu Boms, former Chief of Staff, Tony Okocho, Igo Aguma, Chidi Wihioka, former House of Representatives members, a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Otemabe Amachree, Golden Chioma and former lawmaker, among others.
Addressing the stakeholders who expressed their willingness to come together and form a formidable party, Deeyah noted that most of the cases the party pursued in 2019 were responsible for its misfortunes.
“We made a lot effort to bring the party together before now, but those efforts yielded no results. However, this time around, one of the things we discovered that was our major challenge was that a lot of things that were going on within the party were done by few caucus, which majority were not aware of but at the end, they affected all of us.
“We are conscious of these things and we don’t want them repeated, APC Rivers should emulate Lagos State APC, because some of the things members wanted didn’t go their way, but they accepted to compromise and at the end, they were compensated and that is how it should be,” he said.
He stressed that all members of the party were feeling the enormity of the crisis, urging them to drop all court cases and come together to dialogue and bind the party together to achieve the desired purpose.
Speaking, Aguma restated that the APC crisis lingered for over five years because stakeholders tried severally to bring both factions together, but lamented that lack of cooperation from some persons and even the elders hindered the peace accord.
He said, “I went to court because the caretaker committee set up to conduct the affairs of the party was unconstitutional and alien to the APC constitution because they are the same members of the State Executive Council.
“So, seeing the executive council of the party dissolved was something I needed to contest in court, I learnt there are so many other cases being filed against the decision.
“In other words, I am saying that we cannot continue to recycle every time and for the sake of peace and unity, I have decided to drop all the cases for us to move forward, but our leaders must decide to be leaders indeed by bringing true peace and unity to the party through dialogue. Our problem is within and we all have what it takes to resolve it.”
Responding, Wihioka said, “As members of APC in Rivers State, what is important to us now is moving forward, if we do the same thing we did, what happened to us in 2019 will repeat itself again in 2023.
“Let us hold election and whoever emerges as leader becomes the leader of the party, no body is born to be a leader.”