From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has warned South West governors of the party to stop disrespecting them by hobnobbing with Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike.
State stakeholders of the party gave the warning at a day consultative meeting with stalwarts of the party in the South-South zone in Port Harcourt.
The party also urged its national leadership to prevail on the governors to desist from coming to the state, if not for the sake of solidarity, saying “visiting Wike is an embarrassment to our effort in trying to reclaim the state.”
The Chairman of the party in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Sydney Nyeche, said: “We find it disrespectful that while we are toiling for the party in the state, some group of governors from the West come to the state, go to Rumueprikom(Wike’s residence) and be negotiating with Nyesom Wike.
“The attention of the National Chairman is drawn to this because we will not tolerate this anymore; we have had enough.
“We urge the National Working Committee of the party to warn these governors from the West to desist from coming to the state to negotiate with the governor. This level of embarrassment we have suffered should stop.
“I cannot be threatened every day because of my political leanings and somebody will come from the West to rubbish our efforts. If they cannot come to the state to show solidarity, they should stop coming to the state.”
The state chairman of the party, Emeka Beke, berated the non-remittance of 25 per cent of the funds generated from the sales of forms from candidates of the state during the party primaries to strengthen the party.
Beke demanded support from the party’s national leadership, stressing that the state chapter would reciprocate in the same manner it is being treated.
“Please, we urge the National Chairman that Rivers State bought forms worth over N1 billion and we are requesting that they should remit to the state 25 per cent generated through the sale of the forms,” he said.
“If the money is not remitted to the state they should forget about coming to the state to canvass for the presidential candidate.
“We will vote for our House of Representatives members, and Senate and put our focus on the governorship of the state and we will win.
“If the national body does not listen to us, we will take our destiny into our hands.
“The national body needs to support us if not we will not support them. We are loyal party men and we believe in the leadership of the party at the top but they should support us.”
Meanwhile, the convener of the meeting, the Vice Chairman, South-South zone of APC, Victor Giadom, earlier in his speech, said the essence of the meeting was to understand clearly the challenges of the party in the state and areas to improve on.
Giadom noted that he would collate the report and send it to the national leadership of the party to ensure that solutions to all the complaints were gotten.
“We want to know those things that we are not doing well as a party. The meeting intends to critically look at the party in the state to know how to reposition it and by so doing, we will do more listening than talking,” he said.
“It was a very honest meeting where stakeholders have to bare their minds to the pains of what they are passing through in the party.
“The reason we are here is to collate what we feel are the challenges in the party to ensure that we provide a solution.
“We have come, we have listened to them, we have heard them clearly and we will put them together and report to the National leadership to ensure that we find solutions to all the things that we know will help us win election in the state.”