From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Magnus Abe, has stated that he and his supporters dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Social Democratic Party (SDP) because impunity in his former party was more than in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Abe made the declaration at a sensitization rally in Bomu, Gokana Local Government Area of the State recently, while addressing SDP members and decampees from other political parties.
“You are welcome to this party, all of us are decampees from one party or the other, because of the promises that the parties made to us, we all know that those promises have not been kept,” he said.
“We complained about the impunity in PDP, we moved to APC, the impunity in APC was more than the one in PDP, we moved to SDP.
“We complained that every time we vote after we finished voting, it is only the lives of those in government that change. Those of us that are not in government, our own lives will continue to get worse while the people in government are getting better and you know that all of us can not be in government at the same time.”
He restated that the party (SDP) remains the fastest-growing political party in the state.
Abe continued: “We are the fastest growing political party in Rivers State. We are determined and we are committed.
“We have agreed that it is time for Rivers People to come together and do things differently. The time to do a different thing and achieve a different result is now.”
He further said: “I have said before that I have calculated the total number of people who can be in government in one lifetime.
“When you count the whole commissioners, if it is one per local government in Rivers State, that will be 23, House of Assembly 32, Chairman of Council 23, Vice Chairman another 23.
“Senators, House of Representatives members, governor, deputy governors, they are not up to 20.
“When you count the whole chairmen of commissions, count all the whole chairmen of the party, deputy chairmen, this chairman, that chairman, that honourable, count all of them, they are not up to 2,500.
“If 2,500 people will benefit, in eight years, that is 5,000, in 16 years, that will be 10,000; in 32 years, it will be 20,000 and in 64 years, 40,000.
“By 64 years, very few people who are here will still be alive. So if it is only 40,000 people will enjoy Rivers State in 64 years, what will you be doing?
“It is only black people doing the same thing. Every time, you do the same thing, you get the same complaint, and next time, you do the same thing again. When you get the same result, you complain again. Are you not a fool?
“That will not happen again. We will change the narrative. We will make things work and improve the economic lives of the people.
“We have the institutional memory, the knowledge, the capacity and experience to give Rivers people a better tomorrow,” he assured.
