Abe, who represents Rivers South East, had insisted on direct primaries, while APC National Working Committee approved indirect primaries for the state.
Tony John, Port Harcourt
The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday held parallel governorship primaries in Rivers State, with the factions loyal to Senator Magnus Abe and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi holding separate events.
READ ALSO: Rivers: Amaechi, Abe’s camps disagree on APC primaries
Abe’s faction of the APC, led by Peter Odike, held its direct primaries across the 23 local government areas of the state and collated the results at its Port Harcourt, Aba Road, secretariat, while Amaechi’s group, led by Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, held its primaries at the popular Igboukwu field, D/Line, Port Harcourt.
At the Igboukwu field, the primaries, presided over by Major General Jafara Isa (rtd), listed the names of Senator Magnus Abe, Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Tonye Cole and Dr. Dawari George, as the candidates cleared to participate in the primaries.
Similarly, at Abe’s faction of the party’s primaries Cole , Abe, Lulu-Briggs and George were mentioned as contesters in the governorship primaries.
At Abe’s faction of the primaries, Senator Abe was declared winner with a total vote of 144,929 votes to emerge winner.
Senator Abe had earlier threatened to withdraw from the Flag-Ojukaye-led APC primaries. Abe, who represents Rivers South East in the Senate, had insisted on direct primaries, while APC National Working Committee (NWC) approved indirect primaries for the state.
Lulu-Briggs, who was also cleared to participate in the primaries, later withdrew from the Flag-Amachree-led faction of the primaries on the ground that the processes were not transparent.
Daily Sun gathered that Lulu-Briggs had earlier called on the national secretariat of the party to suspend the primaries.
Results of the Igboukwu APC primaries were being collated at of the time of filing this report.
It would be recalled that crisis rocked the state chapter of the party when Amaechi insisted on Cole as his preferred candidate for the party’s primaries.
Abe and his supporters were of the opinion that the primaries should be opened for all the members of
the party to choose their flag bearer, while Amaechi and his supporters wanted indirect exercise.
