Candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the December, 10 National and State Assemblies rerun elections from the Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State have been rejected and sent out of Andoni for alleged obscene manners.
It was an occasion of a burial ceremony of one late Mr. Une Nzekwe, father of an APC chieftain in Unyengala Doni town, headquarters of Andoni ward two (2), last weekend.
The burial ceremony of the late Peaceful Elder Une Nzekwe which ought to be moment of reflections on the man’s good gestures while on earth was however, suddenly twisted into grounds for insulting personalities, where abuses became the order of the day rather than consoling the bereaved family.
According to The Newswriter sources “stakeholders and candidates of the APC in their usual manner, converted the occasion of the burial ceremony of late Messer Une Nzekwe to campaign ground where they rain insult against former speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rt. Hon. Ilamyi-Owaji Ibani and his former Special Adviser on Political Matters, Chief (Hon.) Allen Jonah Abbi, of Unyengala Community.
One of the sources added, “even in the presence of Chief Allen Jonah Abbi, the APC members were insulting him not minding he is a chief and they were in his community; abusing principal and his adviser, it was offensive and against our community and a slam on us and our candidate”.
The Chief (Hon.) Allen Jonah Abbi, a former elected member of the RSHA, hails from Unyengala Community where APC turned the burial of the chief’s maternal relation against him and his principal, Rt. Hon. Ibani an act that ignited the youth’s anger against the APC candidates and stakeholders as they waylaid them on their way out of the community.
The youths of the community irrespective of their party affiliation however, united against the APC, chanting choruses against APC, saying in ward two (2) there is no APC but PDP.
“No more APC in our ward, whether we no plenty but now na PDP we know, na community something” the source said
Another source who witnessed the scene noted that the Special Adviser to former speaker Ibani was comfortable in the midst of his enemies at the burial ceremony, adding that the chief was the one who welcomed and ushered in the APC chieftains, his accusers.
From the decision of the youths, even if there were infinitesimal number in the APC, they have resolved to work for the PDP which according to the source, the few youths in that party are now ready to publicly declare their support for the PDP any moment, describing the situation where burial ceremonies are turned to campaign ground as unfortunate and an obvious sign of lack of cash to finance any reasonable outdoor campaign.
It would be recalled that burial occasions are usually converted to political campaign grounds by that party in Rivers State.
Meanwhile, it was difficult to reach out to chief (Hon.) Allen Jonah Abbi as he could not take his calls, return calls or reply to sms as at the time of filling in this report. ###
