My attention has been drawn to a write up circulating in the media credited to Magnus Ngei Abe captioned:
“RIVERS APC, ITS TIME TO MOVE FORWARD”
My initial disposition to the write up was to wave it off as the kind of ranting naturally expected of a person who just procured a victory that can only at best be described as pyrrhic.
However, after reading through the contents thereof and seeing that he has become personal and indeed scornful, I felt the need to drop a few comments so that the discerning public would not mistake a lie for the truth. And most pertinently, also have the opportunity to determine the charlatan motives of the person known as Magnus Ngei Abe. I have hereunder reproduced the write up in issue for ease of reference:
“RIVERS APC, IT’S TIME TO MOVE FORWARD
I have reviewed the judgements of the High Court of Rivers State delivered yesterday.
In one case the court in its wisdom upheld the argument of a statutory member of the State Executive Committee, Chief Hon. Igo Aguma, that it was unconstitutional to appoint some unknown characters to lead the party, when there are statutory members of the State Executive Committee of the party in office.
In the second suit, party members who went up to the Supreme Court to contest their right to participate in the party’s congresses simply went back to court that the judgement of the Supreme Court that recognized their right to participate in the congresses be established by the court.
In essence these prayers are the substance of the reliefs granted by the court.
In the peculiar situation in which our party has found itself in Rivers State, these pronouncements offer us a unique opportunity to come together and put the All Progressives Congress in Rivers state on a sound footing.
How can a judgement that reaffirms the right and responsibility of all major stakeholders in the party to come together for the sake of the party be bad for the APC?
How can a judgement that redresses a grave injustice and heals the grievous crime of exclusion that was inflicted on over 19,000 (nineteen thousand) party faithful across the state be bad for our party?
The only thing wrong with the judgement is that it failed to massage the ego of any individual.
What the party needs in Rivers State is healing for those who have been hurt, justice for those who were deprived and inclusion for all stakeholders who were excluded from the party for no reason other than the fact that they hold a different opinion. These judgements are a soothing balm that deliver on these expectations.
I thank the judiciary for their courage in standing by the truth and delivering justice even in very difficult circumstances.
The party must now move forward, it is time for us to come together and hold congresses that will leave no one out, and re-establish not just structures but hope and confidence in our party.
We must all be ready to work with each other, and work with other stakeholders including Chief Igo Aguma. Chief Aguma is eminently qualified to lead other statutory stakeholders in the State Executive Committee. He was bold enough to challenge a Caretaker Committee that was composed of unknown persons and reflected neither the inputs of other stakeholders nor the political realities on ground in the state.
He is entitled to the fruits of his victory, in any case, he is one out of twenty seven but he is one of us and known to all of us.
My advice to Chief Aguma is simple. Harbor no personal or hidden agenda, reach out to all persons of consequence in the party who are desirous of repositioning the party, but summon the courage to move on if people do not desire to be part of the rebuilding of the party, none of us can be bigger than the party.
I salute the courage and resilience of all members of our great party, this is the time for us to summon courage and revive our fortunes. The judgement is a Victory for justice. It is a Victory for the APC. It is time to move forward.”
It is clear from the foregoing that, Magnus, explicitly referred to the members of the Caretaker Committee (CTC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Rivers State Chapter, put together by the National Working Committee of the Party in September 2019, as “unknown characters”. As Chairman of the CTC appointed by the NWC in September 2019, it suffices to state that, Magnus digressed from the substance of his call to move the Party forward and impugned my person which is the basis of the few comments I intend to make here.
The offending part of the statement credited to Magnus is as silly as is idiotic in every sense. In fact, it is a clear evidence of Magnus’ true character as an arrogant fellow camouflaging as a gregarious party man than myself.
I know Magnus very well even though he pretends same about me. In 2013 when the High Court declared Bro. Felix Obuah as Chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in place of Chief G.U. Ake, the news broke while I was in Cape Town, South Africa at a cocktail party hosted by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. Myself, Okechukwu Owhonda, Magnus and a few others retreated to a corner of the hall to analyse the political implications of the judgement. It was in the course of our discussion that Magnus made up his mind to return by the next flight to Nigeria.
Prior to 2013, and during the tenure of Governor Sir (Dr.) Peter Odili, my client Silverbird through its 93.7 FM radio outlet had made a rebroadcast of the news of the purported collapse of Choba bridge. The Government was very infuriated by the news item to the extent that my client’s staff were arrested and charged before Hon. Justice A. Enebeli of the High Court of Rivers State. As head of the legal Team for Silverbird, I was involved in a number of meetings jointly and/or separately with the then Governor, and Magnus as the Commissioner of Information and the then Honourable Attorney General of the State to discuss the matter. At the end of the day, the State entered a nolle prosequi and dropped the charges against the staff of my client.
The two events referenced above are significant enough for Magnus Abe being directly involved in the entire process, to retain me in his subconscious mind, except of course that he is suffering some acute amnesia or that he is now infested with a flawed sense of recollection.
Magnus Abe, with all his pretensions is, in my view a professional ignoramus or how else do you describe a legal practitioner {and thus a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)} in his right senses referring to me as an “unknown character”!!!.
Prior to my appointment to the caretaker status, I was the immediate past Chairman of the NBA, Ahoada Branch and since 2017 till date, a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA. Invariably, I have been actively involved for the past three (3) years in taking critical decisions on behalf of all Lawyers in Nigeria inclusive of Magnus. This shows how tenuous the claim of Magnus is.
Magnus represents the small set of politicians who will never appreciate the little contributions made by other Party members otherwise, he ought to have known that in the heat of the crisis in Rivers State when His Excellency Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi was the Governor of the State, I was a member of the “Legal War Council” headed by the then Attorney General, Worgu Boms, Esq. along with the likes of Hon. Ezekiel Ezemonye, Sir Henry Odili, Hon. Chidi Lloyd et al.
It is even most unthinkable that Magnus could refer to the Secretary of the CTC, Mr. Baridor Badom as an “unknown character” when the same Baridor Badom was the pioneer Chairman of the Mandate Forum, a foremost body that championed the Governorship ambition of Magnus. The said Baridor Badom mobilized over Two Million Naira (N2,000,000) for the purchase of the nomination form for Magnus. What a shame!!!
Pomposity and egoistic factors certainly beclouded Abe’s sense of recent history so badly that he failed to realize that at the time of our movement from PDP to APC, I was the serving Party Secretary in Ahoada-East Local Government Area.
If Magnus feels that I am an “unknown character”, gladly the likes of Senator Wilson Asinobi Ake, Hon. Chibudom Nwuche, Worgu Boms, Esq., Hon. Chris Mba, Hon. Golden Chioma, Hon. Adokiye Oruwari, Hon. Steven Ezekwem, Hon. (Dr.) Chigbo Sam Eligwe, Chief Andy Uzoma Nweye, Abdul Gwezia, Esq. and a host of his close associates, do not think so.
How silly and irresponsible of Magnus to refer to me as an “unknown character” just because he wants to create class consciousness that exists only in his wrapped imagination. The message Magnus is invariably passing across is that those Party members at the grassroots who do not have any personal relationship with him are not just inferior to him but undeserving of being appointed to positions of responsibility in the Party!!! For a man that desperately aspires to govern the good people of Rivers State, it is indeed sad. You are a big shame.
Written by:
Isaac Abbot Ogbobula
