The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has zoned its 2015 governorship to the Rivers Southeast Senatorial District.
APC said its standard bearer would come from either the upland or the coastal area of the district.
Its State Chairman Davies Ibiamu Ikanya addressed reporters on Tuesday at the party’s secretariat on Forces Avenue, Old Government Reservation Area (GRA) in Port Harcourt.
Ikanya said former Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike; the Rivers Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Felix Obuah and other PDP leaders were scared of APC.
Since the creation of Rivers State from the defunct Eastern Region on May 27, 1967, its Southeast senatorial district has not produced the governor.
The people are agitating to produce Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s successor, to end what they called an injustice, lack of equity and fairness to the area.
Since 1999, Rivers governors were from the two other senatorial districts: Dr. Peter Odili is from Rivers West; Sir Celestine Omehia and Amaechi are from Rivers East.
Rivers Southeast comprises four Ogoni local government areas: Khana, Gokana, Eleme and Tai, as well as Oyigbo, Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro.
The two main governorship contenders in the APC – Senator Magnus Abe and Dr. Dakuku Peterside – are from the Southeast senatorial district. Abe is from Bera-Ogoni, in Gokana Local Government Area (upland) and Peterside hails from Opobo, the headquarters of Opobo/Nkoro LGA (riverine).
Abe, a former Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), represents the Rivers Southeast district and chairs the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream). Peterside, a former Rivers Commissioner for Works, represents Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro constituency in the House of Representatives.
Ikanya said: “Our party has zoned the governorship position to the Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, comprising the upland and the riverine areas.
“We (APC’s leaders and members) are talking among ourselves. We are consulting and we are confident that the party will provide a level-playing field for aspirants to market their credentials before the leadership and members of the party. When the party members vote, the candidate that emerges, whether from upland or riverine, will get the party’s support as its candidate.”
The APC chairman dismissed claims by Wike and Obuah that some foundation members of the PDP, including the aggrieved 16 governorship aspirants, who formed a coalition against the quest by the former minister of state to succeed Amaechi, were moles working for the APC.
Ikanya asked: “Who among the PDP members or its governorship aspirants is Wike or Obuah referring to as moles in the PDP? What they fail to realise is that most of the people they are now calling moles joined the PDP before most of them. Most of the aggrieved persons were leaders in the PDP before Obuah became prominent.
“So, he cannot now refer to them as moles. They are simply scared of the APC.”
