After much ado, Abe finally dumps APC, may join SDP

After going back and forth trying to gain a foothold in the party, Senator Magnus Abe, factional leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, has exited the party to seek his long-awaited desire to govern the state via another platform.

The news of Abe pulling out of APC had been in the social media since last week, before a letter of resignation purportedly signed by him (Abe) and addressed to the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, went viral online.

Though Abe on his Facebook’s personal account denied issuing such a letter, a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Parry Benson made available to newsmen in Port Harcourt yesterday, confirmed that Abe has left APC in search of better fortune in another party.

The statement however did not reveal the next move for the 2023 governorship aspirant, nor the party he was going for. But inside sources within APC told The Guardian, that the former representative of Rivers South-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly was moving to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Abe had since 2015 made frantic efforts to govern Rivers State but failed due to deep-seated animosity between him and the immediate past Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi.

On April 18, this year, he again joined the guber race but the intractable splits in APC, which began in 2015 has refused to heal and makes it difficult for Abe to play in the mainstream. He was not part of the Amaechi’s faction of APC, which endorsed Dakuku Peterside as the governorship candidate in 2015.

In 2019, Amaechi again endorsed another party chieftain, Tonye Cole against advice by concerned party members. The move and other irreconcilable issues further widened the division in the party. The court eventually ruled that the APC had no candidate in the elections of that year.

The last straw was the endorsement of Cole, again as the party’s governorship candidate for 2023. The manner that decision was arrived at has caused other aspirants, chieftains of the party and their supporters to take a walk from APC.

Those who left said they no longer see a future in APC, while Tonye Princewill said he left because of the party’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

Citing his reasons for dumping the party, Abe, while speaking on TVC programme yesterday, maintained that he left to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

He however said he is still part of the family of the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Senator insisted that although he has left the party, the purported letter of resignation circulating online does not originate from him.

He said: “I have since left the APC in Rivers State but the letter circulating round is not from me. I am still part of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s family and have no issue with him whatsoever.”

“I am a part of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political family and I’m also part of his own family, and that is a very separate thing, from the politics of Rivers state. Yesterday there were some funny letters circulating on the Internet, that I resigned from the APC because Asiwaju refused to intervene in the politics of Rivers State. That is ridiculous, all politics is local, I have no interest whatsoever in the APC in Rivers State.

“I have no stake in the APC in Rivers state, I don’t know anybody that is in the entire executive of the APC in all the 319 wards in the state. I don’t even know who my ward chairman is, I don’t know any ward ex-officio, officer of the party, I don’t have anybody who is running for any office in the APC in Rivers State that I know, except Asiwaju who is running for President.

“I have absolutely no stake in the party in Rivers and all politics at the end of the day is local. And so it will be irresponsible of me to stay in the APC in Rivers state and support a party in which I have no stake in their victory.

“So it is clear to everybody who is watching the politics of this country that my future in the politics of Rivers State is not tied to the All Progressives Congress and so it is clear that I’m no longer a member of the APC in Rivers State as far as that goes; but, the purported letter flying around wasn’t authored by me and I know absolutely nothing about it and it does not reflect my views and my opinions as far as the politics of Rivers State is concerned.

“I have said in the coming days a lot of things will unfold, but the issue of me and the APC in Rivers State I think that was decided a long time ago. I don’t know why people are still speculating and writing letters on an issue that I have made public a long time ago, that I’m not part of the APC as far as Rivers state is concerned.”