By Comfort Obi
If anybody
was in doubt of why the civilized world laughs at us, the open letter, written
to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, by Senator Magnus
Abe, published in the ThisDay newspaper of Wednesday, September
26, puts a seal on the doubt.
**Magnus Abe and Rotimi Amaechi |
I read it
three times. And each time, my worries increased, with an exclamation to
nobody: ‘Look at what politicians have reduced our country to.’
Both the
Minister and the Senator are from Rivers state. The former, an Ikwerre man, and
the latter, an Ogoni man. Until politics tore them apart, both were close
friends. And belonged to the Dr. Peter Odili Political family – a family so
strong, so influential, that every who-is-who in Rivers politics, from when
Odili was sworn-in as Governor, owe their current and past “bigmanism” in government to it.
From being
members of that political family, both men moved away, along with some others.
So, enters, the Amaechi Political Family. They also dumped the PDP the same day
for the APC.
For the
records, Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, was
initially one of those who abandoned the Odili Political Family for the Amaechi
Political Family. But, according to him, in a story he told publicly, recently,
sleeplessness became his companion. His conscience revolted against him,
all, for moving away from his parent political family – the Odili Political Family
which raised him from a political nobody to today, a political leader in
Nigeria who nobody can ignore. You ignore Wike to your own peril. Ask even his
party, the PDP, where he has emerged a major power broker. This other day, he
dared the party to change the venue of the Presidential primaries from Port Harcourt , where it
had already been scheduled to hold, to another venue, and see his red eyes. I
will be surprised if the party would dare.
But, I
digress. I was discussing Amaechi and Abe.
For reasons
which, at various times, have been attributed to greediness, betrayal,
selfishness, dictatorship and too much ambition, the Amaechi political family
has broken into two. And they are at each other’s neck, revealing secrets
only known to them before. And, now, you also hear of the Abe group.
*Comfort Obi |
In fairness
to Abe, he says he still regards Amaechi as his political leader. Which must be
why, even in the open, caustic, letter, he addressed Amaechi as Sir. ‘Sir,’ he
began the letter with.
He had,
also, a few days earlier, publicly declared Amaechi as his leader, a
declaration that so incensed Amaechi that he swiftly rejected it with a
rebuke. ‘I am not your leader’.
The Rivers
state political story is a long and dirty one. It is a story of dog eats dog,
many betrayals, intrigues, treachery, lies and more. It is not a story for this
column, which is why I will, here, restrict myself to some of the
unbelievable revelations made by Abe in his letter to his leader, Amaechi.
I found
them disturbing. And all those who believe in Nigeria , and our struggle for true
democracy, should.
According
to Abe, he and Amaechi recently met before the APC National
Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and a few other party bigwigs. He neither
disclosed why they met, or the date of the meeting, or on whose
invitation it was. I assume it was to find a common ground, a ground that
had since shifted, in order to save their party, the APC in Rivers. But
Abe was very upset that the allegations Amaechi made against him at the
meeting, which he thought were for the consumption of those present, had become
public. So, instead of restricting his written response to Adams and co., he
decided to respond in kind – through an open letter.
It’s a long
letter. But the areas of interest to me here are limited to:
*Whether,
he, Abe won the Senatorial election in Gokana LGA or not.
*The
alleged despicable role Youth Corps members played in Gokana during that
election.
* And, who
was responsible for the removal of Ibim Seminatari as the Ag. MD of the NDDC.
Amaechi,
according to Abe, had told Oshiomhole and co. that he (Abe) did not win the
election in Gokana; that he won only when one Chief Victor Giadom threatened
the Electoral Officer with a gun.
Abe in the
letter: ‘You said I did not win the election in Gokana, and that Chief Victor
Giadom brought out a gun, and stuck it to the head of the Electoral Officer and
threatened to kill him before results were changed in my favour.’
Abe
dismissed this serious allegation by Amaechi with one word – laughable.
Good.
Before I
get to his version of what happened, here is my opinion on Amaechi’s troubling
revelation.
Just
imagine the scene. Election results had been compiled and recorded. But this
Chief, like an armed robber, in a Rambo style, stormed the venue, pulled a gun,
stuck it to the head of the Electoral Officer and threatened to kill him unless
he reversed the results and declare Abe the winner? And everybody looked on.
Wonderful!
Only in Nigeria .
So where were the thousands of security personnel – Army,
Police, DSS and more?
Here is why
we should worry. As you know, Policemen at polling stations are not
allowed to carry guns. They stand there, with nothing to protect themselves,
very vulnerable to political thugs and their masters. And, here is
Minister Amaechi, a very high profile government official, telling us that this
Chief actually pulled a gun, stuck it to the head of the Electoral
Officer, threatened to shoot him unless he reversed the results and declare Abe
the winner. He was not arrested. And this story only became public now because
Amaechi and Abe are quarreling.
Here are
the implications of the Minister’s revelation: The Gokana election was rigged
in favour of Abe. The Senator did not win the election. The Electoral
Officer was forced, at gun point, to change the result in favour of Abe. What a
country!
The
questions are: Now that this allegation is public, what will happen? Will
anybody be invited for more details, more explanations? Or will it be dismissed
with a wave of the hand? Was the Chief authorised to carry a gun to a collation
centre? If so, was he authorised to use it to compromise results? Again,
why was he not arrested?
However,
Abe denies Amaechi’s Gokana story in his open letter.
His words:
‘This is laughable. The issue in the Gokana election was that party leaders in
some wards who promised the Youth Corps members refreshments,
deliberately refused to keep their word to the personnel even when they had the
means to do so. In anger and frustration, a lot of the Corp members
started changing results or mutilating results in favour of PDP chieftains who
came to take advantage of the widespread anger among the Electoral personnel’
True? Lord
have mercy!
Abe also
admitted that ‘Chief Giadom got there and called my attention to what was going
on. That was the call for which I thanked Chief Giadom’.
Good.
So, who do
we believe between Amaechi and Abe? For both men, one fact is constant –
Giadom’s role – either as a gun carrier, or as a phone maker. But, the most
important thing is that both men agree that the election was compromised by
either a gun-totting Giadom, or Youth Corps members who re-wrote the results.
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