By JIMITOTA ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT — SENATOR Magnus Abe has vowed to continue to support Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State because of his commendable performance.

Senator Abe, who spoke at Gokana and Khana local government areas in Ogoni, said it was sad that the state was being allegedly neglected by the Federal Government, in spite of the fact that people of the area fought for the realisation of a South South President.

He said: “First, we have not said that we are against President Goodluck Jonathan, we have not said so here. People need to remember that the South-South Presidency that we are talking about and enjoying today had an origin.

“The Calabar Declaration that was the beginning of the South-South struggle for the presidency was written by me in my own hand in the office of then Secretary to Government of Cross River State. I wrote it. Prince Tony Momoh was there, Mr. Egbogbo, the then secretary to the government of Cross River State was there and a lot of other eminent persons from South-South.

“The reason we fought for the Presidency to come to the South-South was because we said we wanted Nigeria to be restructured, that we needed to change the structure of this country so that we have a more progressive, more prosperous, a more successful Nigeria for all Nigerians.

“Today, we have a President from the South-South and in bringing about that president from the South-South, all of us supported President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. We voted for him, we spent money on him. Nobody brought one Naira to Rivers State to campaign for Jonathan.

“Nobody brought one Naira and I challenge anybody who said he gave Rivers State money. It was out of our resources and our time, settled our differences, and ignored whatever challenges we had to ensure that we produce a president from the South-South.

“Now, what is the problem today? We are politicians, you must look around you. Today, we are standing here, if we talk of the president from South-South and the president is from Bayelsa, it means that Rivers State can no longer be president because it is our turn.

“It is as much the turn of Rivers State as it is the turn of Akwa Ibom, as it is the turn of Cross River, as it is the turn of Bayelsa, as it is the turn of Edo, as it is the turn of Delta because that is how Nigeria is structured. So this president it is our own turn.”

“It is the president from Rivers State and the question that has brought about the fences between us and the Federal Government is simple: what has Rivers State benefited from it?

“We have challenges that started right from the time of Dr Peter Odili between Rivers State and Bayelsa over some oil wells in Rivers State. Presidents came and went, the problem was still there, we were in court, the boundary commission had written to say that the matter would be settled and all that but today those oil wells had been ceded to other states.

“The money that was in escrow account when we didn’t have a President from Rivers State is no longer in escrow, it has gone to Bayelsa. You look at the Bodo-Bonny road, when we came, the governor (Amaechi) offered to do the Bodo-Bonny road, all he wanted was a letter from the Federal Government…we didn’t get that co-operation, today what is the fate of the road?”

Senator Abe also decried the delay on the part of the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Environment Programes’s, UNEP report on Ogoni area.