Magnus Abe, the Senator representing Rivers South-East senatorial district in the National Assembly has advised ousted gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, to stop raining abuses on the judiciary, over the unfortunate situation the party in the state found itself.
Abe stated this while addressing party supporters, that came to celebrate President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the February 23 poll, at his Abuja residence on Sunday.
The lawmaker said he was surprised that Rivers people came out in their thousands to vote for President Buhari and condemned the violence that marred the elections in some parts of the state.
However, Cole came out to slam the Nigerian judiciary and ascribed every vote received by the APC to himself and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
But Abe reminded Cole that elections did not take place in his (Cole) Local Government Area (LGA) and that of the Minister of Transportation (Rotimi Amaechi).
He said, “I and other leaders of the APC gathered our scarce private resources to mobilise party members in all the 23 LGAs of Rivers State, and APC members responded by coming out in their thousands to vote for Mr. President.
“No one should denigrate the contributions of others, this was not NDDC, NIMASA, NPA, railway or Presidential Campaign Council funds – this was money contributed by APC leaders out of love for Mr. President and his contributions to Rivers people.
“Cole and his co-travelers have no right to lay claim to every vote as that of their efforts and of Amaechi alone. He should acknowledge the contributions of other leaders. Whatever the motive of his press conference he should try to achieve it without running down the contributions of other leaders.
“The senator stated that it is a nationally known fact that more people, including the Mr. Dumo Lulu-Briggs defected from the minister’s faction of the APC. Name calling and trying to blackmail other leaders will not solve the challenges facing the party in Rivers State
