Some members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers state loyal to Senator Magnus Abe have cried out against a plot to destroy the party from the inside.

They accused the Abe group of conniving with the Rivers State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to ensure that the party is left out of the 2023 ballot through the courts as they did in 2019.

A statement by two members of the group, Tonte Amachree and Kelvin Okechukwu, alleged that the a PDP leader in Rivers State was in attendance at a meeting by the Abe group, advising them on how to proceed with the suit against the APC and its former caretaker Chairman and its reassignment to a new judge.

They went further to call on the national leadership of the APC to act fast and call Senator Abe and his group to order to avoid a repeat of the party’s 2019 fortunes in 2023.

The statement read: “Our names are, Tonte Amachree from Asari-Toru Local Government Area APC Ward 7, and Kelvin Okechukwu Obulo from Opobo-Nkoro APC Ward 4.

“We are members of the APC in Rivers State and have been loyal and active members of the Magnus Abe group.

“Last week Thursday, we were called by two well-known leaders of the Magnus Abe group in Opobo/Nkoro and Asari-Toru Local Government Areas, respectively, to a meeting where we would sign an affidavit to join in the suit against the APC in Rivers State and its former Caretaker Chairman.

“The meeting was held at the house of a former Attorney General of Rivers State. The meeting had elite members of the Magnus Abe group in attendance.

“A state PDP leader was also in that meeting. He introduced himself and addressed us, advising the group on how to proceed.

“They assured us that the State government would ensure that the case is reassigned to a judge that would do our bidding after the former Judge, Justice Minakiri recused himself from the suit.

“Now, this is our grouse. Why would the leader of the opposition party be in our meeting? We had earlier believed that we were working to put the party back together.

“But with this new development, we believe otherwise. How can the leadership of the opposition PDP be in our midst, encouraging us and even guiding us on how to pull down our own party from the inside?

“Why would our people be conniving with the State government and the PDP to destroy our party in the guise of making things right?

“We silently walked out of that devilish meeting with the realisation that we have been fooled all along.

“We cannot fold our arms and allow Magnus Abe and his group to mislead us again. We cannot afford for our party not to be on the ballot again.

“We are calling on the APC national leadership to call Magnus Abe and his group to order so that Rivers APC will move forward.”

Vanguard News