APC convention: Dead members included in Rivers’ list, Abe’s faction alleges

Ahead of Saturday’s National Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, the faction loyal to Senator Magnus Abe in Rivers State has alleged that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, presented names of dead persons and defectors as delegates from the state.

This was contained in a petition jointly signed by Amaechi’s former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Rivers State, Worgu Boms; Senator Magnus Abe and Senator Wilson Ake among others and made available to newsmen in Port Harcourt.

The faction, according to the petition, alleged deliberate inclusion of deceased persons on the delegates’ list already submitted for the convention.

“We examined the list and found that it was inflated by adding names of deceased persons and persons who were never principal officers in the Rivers State House of Assembly (two categories of invalidity and nullity of delegates) status are attached to over twenty persons on the list in three broad categories of deceased persons, impostors, and persons who are no longer members of the APC,” it stated.

In another category, the petitioners stated that some of the names included on the lists were never in the position ascribed to them.

“They were so presented so as to bring them into the delegates’ category since being a member of House of Assembly is not.

“We do not say that they were not in the state legislature on the dates listed against their names. We state that it is not true that they were principal officers as claimed,” they claimed.

But in a swift reaction, an ally of the Transport Minister and chieftain of the party, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, said Senator Abe and his group are not members of the APC, saying they are confused.

“You see the problem with Abe is that he is confused. He doesn’t know what he wants. One, he is not a member of the APC.

“When the party called for membership revalidation, he ordered his loyalists not to participate.

“He is not a party member, because if he is a party member and he raises an issue, it would be addressed. But he is not,” Eze stated.