The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed excitement over the return of the former governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Senator Magnus Abe, to its fold.
The APC, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt by its caretaker committee chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, described Abe, who is also a former Senator that represented Rivers South-East District in the National Assembly, as a ‘valued asset’.
Describing Abe as a co-founder of the APC in the state, Okocha stated that the former lawmaker served the state at several times as Minority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Commissioner for Information and Secretary to the State Government.
“I have read some puerile statements of some uninformed neophytes on the return of Senator to the Party (APC), he co-founded in Rivers State and his well-considered decision to reconcile with other numero unos of Rivers State politics. I have therefore, elected to lend my voice to the topical issue thusly:
“Senator Magnus Abe is a full-blown, conscious and consenting adult. He is not a character to be led by the nose by anyone no matter how highly placed in Nigeria, Rivers State or anywhere else.
“Senator Abe has been very conspicuous in the political history book of Rivers State. He had occupied positions of trust and responsibilities, either as elected representative or appointed into very crucial offices in Rivers State at one time or the other, where he exuded capacity and intellectual confidence to the point of role model.
“In an Assembly dominated by the PDP in 1999, Magnus Abe of the APP, was a vocal voice. Many spectators made their way to the Assembly auditorium gallery to listen to the upcoming Cicero who became the minority leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly. He thrilled his fans with sound reasoning and erudition so much so that the rule of not clapping in the Assembly auditorium/gallery was sometimes unconsciously broken.
“Being a thorn on the flesh of the ruling PDP, efforts were intensified to get him over to add value from the parlance of the ruling party, rather than continue to rock the boat through profound opposition stance. It paid off after the excruciating attempts.
“Isn’t it curious that a former minority leader of the House of Assembly who was drafted into the ruling party, was assigned the portfolio of the Commissioner of Information (Spokesperson of the Government of the State)?
“Magnus Abe served out as Commissioner for Information meritoriously, winning several awards from Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and related bodies. He graduated into the office of the Secretary to the Rivers State Government and later elected into the Nigerian Senate twice.
“Against the risk of being read as chronicling his biography, I will summarily say that Senator Abe is a households name in Rivers State politics. Not even the naysayers will disagree with this proposition,” Okocha said.
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