Leaders of the Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have formally expressed their dissatisfaction over the appointment of the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the party-led federal government.
President Bola Tinubu of the APC had appointed former governor Nyesom Wike, who is still a member of the PDP, as minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Some other appointments of the president had also gone to Wike’s allies in the PDP.
The Rivers APC leaders expressed their shock over the reward of PDP members against that of the party when they paid a courtesy call on the party’s national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, in his office in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking on behalf of the leaders, the APC governorship candidate in the 2023 general election, Tonye Cole, said those being rewarded had deployed state machinery to destroy the party since 2013 it was formed.
Cole urged President Tinubu to appoint APC members from the state into key positions while empowering others to cater for party faithful who remain longstanding despite the human and material losses they have encountered.
His words:
“Your Excellency, if the event described above shocked us a little, what happened next was card-carrying PDP members of Rivers state got appointments in our APC Federal Government, left us completely confused and very upset.
“Those being rewarded are PDP members who spent huge state resources trying to destroy APC in Rivers State since 2013 and failed, primarily because these loyal APC members here resisted them fiercely.
“Your Excellency would be shocked that as we address you in this meeting, the Rivers State chapter of the APC has no representation at any level of governance in our country. There isn’t a single Rivers APC member appointed at any level of the federal, state or local government.
“Things are much worse now than they were in 2015, and we are being foreclosed from exercising our right to challenge the results of elections that do not represent the expressed will of the people of Rivers state.
“We can only urge the president and leader of our great party to do more for God’s glory and the APC’s good,” he said.
In his response, Dr Ganduje assured the leaders that the party would look into how best to compensate APC members in Rivers and urged them to open the doors to those who left it in the past and members of other parties who want to join.
He said: “For this compensation, we will take it very seriously. If there is any general policy that has affected that, then we should take note of compensation in that respect.
“There is no doubt Rivers state is a very important state. It is a swing state for election in Nigeria. It is an oil-rich state, which is important not only to the state but to the nation.
“We urge you to create an even environment, to keep your doors open, so that those who left the party, no matter how big they are in another party, where they went for sabbatical leave, let them return to their original base – to their original employers.
“Also, some people who have not been in the party but are in another. We would also like them to join the party. You will keep your doors open as well because we need to rebuild our party so that we become solid.”
