By Jude Opara, Abuja
With barely three weeks to the scheduled August 9 Local Government Area election in Rivers state, some stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) have opposed what they described as a proposal that would share the Area Council offices among the APC and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyal to the Ambassador Umar Damagum led National Working Committee (NWC).
The angry stakeholders in registering their rejection of the alleged LG sharing arrangements at the last week’s South South stakeholders meeting of the APC in Benin City, Edo state, warned that the party will only be reducing the integrity and strength of the APC if it approved the proposal.
According to the arrangement, the agreement which they described as a “Rainbow Coalition” was designed to share the local government areas chairmanship tickets among a particular PDP faction and the Tony Okocha led APC faction also said to be loyal to President Bola Tinubu, while other stakeholders were conspicuously left out.
The aggrieved stakeholders revealed that some of the Local Government Areas that have already been shared to the identified political parties and their leaders include Opobo Nkoro, Ahaoda West, Ikwere, Obio – Akpor, Degema, Andoni, Gokana, Bonny, Asari Toru, Akuku Toru and many others.
The protesting stakeholders, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja called on the APC to reject the said “rainbow coalition” and go into the elections as a strong and deep-rooted political party in the Rivers state.
In the statement jointly signed by Hon. Adams Okon Bassey, Hon. Esike Mike and Hon. Mrs. Helen Timi Oyinpreye, emphasised that the APC has gained a lot of ground in Rivers state since the two years of the administration of Ppresident Bola Tinubu, and therefore wondered how the party with a lot of grassroots base would agree to trade and mortgage it’s future in the name of a coalition.
“While we call on our members to remain focused, we are calling on the NWC of our great party to mandate the Rivers state leadership of our party to commence the process of electing credible candidates who have the grassroots support to win the elections
“This arrangement, if approved will go a long way to hurt the interest of our party in Rivers state. We should not forget in a hurry that Rivers state APC has a sitting National Vice Chairman, South-South in the NWC, we also have many other leading stakeholders of the party, which includes the members of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which is one of the legacy political parties that merged with others to form the now ruling APC, Magnus Abbe, Victor Giadom, Tony Okocha, and others who can boast of a commanding followers in the state, so where will the “rainbow coalition leave them?
“As a political party, we should get ourselves together and use the opportunity of the LG election to stamp our authority ahead of the 2027 general elections. Succumbing to the whims and caprices of a single individual in the name of a coalition to share the LGs, especially the APC stronghold councils will no doubt spell doom for our party in future polls” the stakeholders concluded.
