… Cautions that mudslinging will backfire on him
Senator Magnus Abe, All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Rivers South East Senatorial District in the legislative re-run election, has warned Governor Nyesome Wike not to link him with anything about corruption as everybody in the state knows the antecedents of the governor before mounting the office.
Speaking to scores of APC supporters in Ataba town in Andoni Local Government Area, while on a visit for the burial ceremony of late elder Caleb Simon Benjamin Ogbologugo, Abe said that his name is not associated with corruption but of service,idea generation and sound intellect.
He told the supporters in Pidgin English that people should not forget their past easily.
“Today, I no come Ataba for campaign.I no go stay for Ataba reply all the whole nonesense wey una dey hear people talk because no bi wetin bring me come here. Wetin bring me come here na to come honour our father. But let me say this. I think all of us wey dey here know the cream wey dem dey call ‘Nku’ cream. Na elders nai know wetin bi ‘Nku’cream. Anybody wey know Governor Nyesome Wike make dem go tell am say when him dey talk about Senator Abe, make him no talk about corruption because plenty people for Nigeria still remember ‘Nku’ cream and we know the smell of ‘Nku’cream and the bottle is white. Anybody wey no know the smell of something, him go dey talk the thing to people wey no know am. We know people wey fit talk about corruption and people wey no fit talk about corruption. Make Wike talk ‘melebem’ ‘melebem’. You know, he is a governor and I am not a governor. But Rivers people know him and they know me. Me and am bin follow enter EFCC,I pass for door comot but him na court comot am. We no fit sidon here begin talk like say people no remember yesterday. We remember yesterday.”
At the palace of the Okaan Ama and clan head of Ataba kingdom, HRM Dr. Benson Hebron Mgbo-Awaji Egwenre-Uruk (xvii), while on a courtesy visit, Abe said that he would forge stronger relationship between the Ogoni and the Andoni as started by Engr. Sampson Ngerebara.
The former Secretary to Rivers State Government narrated how the Andoni people supported him during his first tenure as a Senator and that was why the first employment opportunity he had to give was given to an Andoni man whom today is a senior staff of NNPC.
He said before the 2015 elections that the politics of Rivers State had been politics of being at the centre and Governor Wike campaigned that Rivers people cannot afford not to be at the centre.
He said today,Rivers South East and indeed Rivers State should be at the centre to get their largesse as the treasure base of the nation, pointing out that any attempt to take away Rivers people from the centre is unacceptable and meant to deny them opportunities.
“Gov. Wike, former Gov.Amaechi and all of us as political leaders in Rivers state agreed that Rivers State must be with the centre. The argument was where will the centre be? Today, we are no longer arguing,we know where the centre is. We don’t want anybody to deceive the Andoni people and pull them behind. The challenges of Andoni are beyond the powers and resources of Rivers state government.”
Abe urged the Andoni people to vote for him and all the APC candidates in the re-run elections to enable them work together to put Andoni at the centre.
Responding to the speech of Senator Abe,the clan head commended Senator Abe and the APC for attending the burial of their colleague.
He said that Andoni people will do everything within their powers to send him to the Senate and reminded him of myriads of NDDC projects in the area.
He appealed that he (Abe) should help the Andoni to persuade the NDDC to complete the projects now that a son of the district is the Executive Director designate Finance and Accounts.
“While coming down here I am sure you saw the work going on on the bridge linking Ataba to Kaa. That job has been on for quite sometime. By the contract specification by now we should be using that road.”
He further stated that Ataba people had been lucky to be at the centre in the past and would be at the centre at present.
“We are very grateful that today APC is controlling the centre and somehow in Ataba here we have a little bit advantage of being favoured by the centre in one way or the other.”
He commended Senator Abe for his role in the clean-up of Ogoni land and appealed to him to extend it to Andoni and other communities of the Niger Delta.
“We also have SHELL that is trying to clean up Bodo and Ataba communities. We don’t know how the two will work. But whichever way it goes, we call for your assistance. We are here in Ataba and we have heard your message. We are people who look ahead and know the direction where we should go that will be okay for us. Like I told you before we will do all in our power to ensure that all the candidates of APC win,” he said.
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