The leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has announced Tonye Cole as the consensus Governorship candidate of the party ahead of the General Elections in 2023, Africa Update has learnt.
the announcement which was made in the early hours of today in Abuja has resulted in an alleged crack in the frail unity of the party, that is in the opposition at the state level.
Speaking to Africa Update on conditions of anonymity, several party men and women expressed disappointment at the choice of Cole, whose emergence in 2019 reportedly led to intense crisis within the camp of the Minister for Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Cole who was seen as an outsider by major players within the Amaechi’s political family, lost his bid to fly the flag of the party due to some purported sabotage from within. An alliance was however brokered with Biokpo Awara, the Governorship candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, to salvage the APC’s chances at the polls in 2019.
That move ended in disaster as the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who was returning for a second term, defeated the greenhorn at the General Elections.
The sources alleged that Cole does not have the capacity to wrestle power from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the State and wondered why the Minister of Transportation and other leaders have made the decision that has the coloration of defeat.
Another Source observed that making the same mistake could spell doom for the party as party men and women have been in limbo for over seven years, hoping that the mistakes of the past would be corrected during the 2022 primaries and at the 2023 general elections.
The source stressed that the party has an array of politicians who have the experience and capacity to choose from and urged the leaders to rescind their decision in the interest of party men and women who have placed their destinies in their trust.
Recall that Dakuku Peterside, Dawari George, Tonye Princewill, Sokonte Davies, Tonye Cole, Francis Ebenezer Ada, Ojukaye Flag Amachree, Ibinabo Michael West, Mina Tende and Biokpomabo Awara, had indicated interest to contest for the party’s Governorship position from the camp of the Minister for Transportation, even as Senator Magnus Abe had last weekend, also declared his intentions to contest for the Governorship on the platform of the APC.
interestingly, Abe and Amaechi have been at loggerheads over the running of affairs of the party in the State including the alleged autocratic stance taken by Amaechi in deciding who becomes the Governorship candidate of the party.
The implications of this decision on the future of the party is still uncertain but Africa Update was reliably informed that some stakeholders have started exiting WhatsApp platforms as clear signs that danger is lurking around the corner.
