The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has expressed confidence in the party’s chances in the disputed Rivers governorship election. Odigie-Oyegun said APC’s successes at the 2015 General Elections has changed the political dynamics in the South-South, specifically Rivers State.
Odigie-Oyegun also stated that he was confident in the party’s chances in the Akwa-Ibom governorship rerun.
He said this when receiving a delegation of the NADECO-forum and Pro-democracy groups in the United Kingdom (1992-1999) led by Chief John Filani, who paid him a courtesy visit at the party’s secretariat in Abuja yesterday.
“With the appointment of the former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi and the Minister for Niger-Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani from Cross Rivers all from the South-South, the combination of these forces is creating a new dynamics in Rivers State as against the forces that forced us out in the first place which was by sheer brute force. This is no longer applicable neither in Rivers or Akwa-Ibom state,” Oyegun stated.
It may be recalled that the Court of Appeal on Wednesday affirmed the judgment of the Rivers Governorship Election Tribunal. The court said that Nyesom Wike, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in this year’s election, was not validly elected. The Rivers Tribunal had earlier on October 24 nullified Mr. Wike’s election.
He said: “With respect to Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, I want to tell you that we are strongly determined and there is hardly any doubt. The former governor of Akwa-Ibom’s motto was ‘what money cannot solve, more money can solve it’. I think that this has been very much at work but I have no doubt in my mind, factions or no factions, that is irrelevant.
“I have stuck my neck out for Umana Umana because looking at all those who wanted that office, he was the only one who has the grits and the guts to take on the very murderous situation that existed in Akwa-Ibom state and if you ask me, I am more confident of winning Akwa-Ibom than any other state in the South-South. We are going to win, that is almost a certainty,” he also stated.