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TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, has
threatened to resist any governorship candidate from his Ikwerre ethnic group
in the state in 2015 general elections.
…Tells Kalabari people to defend their rights
He has also urged the people of Kalabari Kingdom in the
state to rise up to defend their rights to ownership of the disputed Soku oil
wells.
Congratulating the Amanyanabo of Abonnema, King Disrael Gbobo
Bob-Manuel, on the anniversary of his installation at Abonnema, headquarters of
Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of the state, Amaechi vowed that he would not
support an Ikwerre candidate, even though he did not know, where the next
governor would emerge from.
His words: “The next thing I want to tell you is that I’m an
Ikwerre man; whether Ikwerre has population or not, Ikwerre should bid farewell
to governorship till some others have gotten. Where the governor will come
from, I don’t know, I’m not God, but I will fight any Ikwerre candidate that
comes out. That one you can take from me. What you can’t take from me today is,
I don’t know where the governor will come from.”
On the dispute over Soku oil wells, he appealed to the
Kalabari to defend their rights in the spirit of justice and fair play.
“We want to see the young men stand up for their rights.
Will they take your oil wells and you say they should take it? If you say they
should take it, you are not a Kalabari man. Whether it is PDP or APC, if you
say they should take your oil wells, then you are not a Kalabari man. I agree
that your children are in the other party. I usually tell people if the other
party wins, those oil wells are gone for good.
“They will never come back to Rivers State and the
reason they won’t come back is you can never have a governor like me
twice. You can never have a governor who will look at the President and say to
him these oil wells belong to Kalabari people, I will not sign.”
Earlier, a four-time former minister, Alabo Tonye
Graham-Douglas, commended Governor Amaechi’s courage and sincerity in seeking
protection for the disputed Soku oil wells in Kalabari land, saying that it was
time for all Kalabari sons and daughters to rally round the governor to reclaim
the disputed oil wells.
He said: “Let me at this juncture state unequivocally that
Governor Amaechi’s resolve to protect the Kalabari oil field is
well-intentioned and genuine. Any contrary notion being peddled should be
discarded. We should be most grateful to him for standing firm to ensure that
the Kalabari Kingdom is not balkanised through the ill-motivated and
ill-conceived boundary adjustment.”
Not only that, the design will reduce our local government
area Akulga to just Abonnema and Obonoma, but it will leave desolate, the
inhabitants of Kula, Abise, Idama, Soku and Elesagama.”
“It is now time for all our people to prepare for whatever
contribution and support that may be needed to ensure that Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s
struggle to protect our territory is eventually successful. His struggle is
that our oil wells remain ours,” Graham-Douglas said.
In his remarks, the Amanyanabo of Abonnema, King Disrael
Gbobo Bob-Manuel thanked Governor Amaechi for attending the ceremony marking
his installation and equally expressed satisfaction with his development drive
in Kalabari land.
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