FULL TEXT OF APC INTERNAL CLASH REVEALED
"RE: PLOT TO DIVIDE RIVERS APC: MR. DEREK MENE FINGERED PART 1( A CALL FOR CAUTION)
I have read with amusement some of the articles making the rounds on the APC Whatsapp platforms and on Facebook, engineered by certain interests and promoted by some elements within the Greater Together New Media Team clearly targeted at me and those identified by the agents of darkness as supporters of Senator Magnus Abe.
The purpose of the entire exercise is clearly to create a rift or the impression of a rift between Senator Abe and his brother, friend and leader, Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi the Minister of Transportation. Our party faithful will recall that sometimes ago, Senator Abe wrote an article titled "Jonathan vs Amaechi: In Whose Interest" in which he argued that those who love a leader genuinely will never be first to take a bell and ring to the world that his house is on fire even before they see smoke.
Clearly it is apparent that there are some fringe elements within the APC who would have preferred, possibly worked for, and definitely prayed for a different outcome to the elections in Rivers South-East. It appears that the electoral victory of the APC in Rivers South-East rather than bring joy has brought anger and anguish to those who feel that there star cannot shine unless senator Abe's light is put out.
These people are angry, disturbed and perturbed when party faithful celebrate their hard-earned victory. They accuse everybody celebrating the victory of our party in Rivers South-East of scattering the party. The truth, however, remains that for a party that has been starved of celebration for two years, joy will not scatter us. Joy will only bring more supporters to the party. Expressing joy has never scattered any political party.
That a member of the Rivers APC can go public to falsely accuse a party leader like Mr. Mene who just contributed so much to the success of the last elections as being the sponsor of a pseudo account on Facebook targeted at APC leaders such as Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is scary. In other words, they want Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to begin to undo Mr Mene. Is that how to build the party?
Every investigation conducted so far has shown that the articles by Marvin Ogbonda, Chris Nkie-Wiwa and the one by Thompson Legborsi got on the Internet from the same source, with some faceless cowards as originators, yet, Friday Kennedy who has relentlessly, intelligently and consistently defended the APC and CRA even at the risk of his life was immediately fingered by who and why? When did it become a crime to be close to Senator Abe in Rivers APC?
Let me put on the record that Senator Magnus Abe has financially supported every LGA in his senatorial district including Khana, and will continue to do so.
Mr. Mene was appointed less than one month to the rerun and had barely had time to settle down before the election. Mr Mene is not the MD of NDDC. How would he take 300 million naira from the coffers of the commission to sponsor the senatorial election? If federal money under President Buhari is so easy to siphon how come other federal appointees from other senatorial districts who have held offices longer than Mr Mene failed to do the same in their own senatorial districts?
The writer seems to know everything Mr Mene is doing including the imaginary fact that he is collecting names for water Hyacinth contracts from every ward in Ogoni, something neither Mene nor my self and other leaders in the party are not aware of, this pseudo writer knows it all.
These writers in their desperation to hack down Senator Abe are becoming neurotic. First, it was that Senator Abe hated the Ogoni, later they said Senator was hated by the Ogoni, now they are saying that everything senator Abe does is in Ogoni. Which one is the real problem?
Let it be made abundantly clear that the Senior Legislative Aid to the Most Distinguished Senator Abe is from Bonny, his Security Head is from Kalabari, others Assistants, PAs and Drivers are from Andoni and Oyigbo, and other LGAs in the district.
There has been a clear and consistent strategy to shackle, blackmail and stereotype Senator Abe. If the Distinguished Senator attends any function outside his senatorial district, he is overheating the polity or flagging off ambition. If he sticks to his senatorial district he is an ethnic warlord. If people of social media spotlights his campaigns and what he is doing, they accuse him of overshadowing Amaechi. And I ask how?
Let me say that as a Senatorial candidate Abe's Social Media Team is made up of people from all seven LGA's of Rivers South-East. So are his staff and and every programme initiated in the district is always for the seven constituent LGAs.
Senator Abe posted a comment on SAF in response to something he thought was not right. He has always done same on other platforms in the past. How and why is that the problem?
For the avoidance of doubt, let me state clearly that I have never operated a pseudo account all my active life on social media as I posses sufficient dose of courage to say whatever I want to say with the Facebook name Kennedy Friday. That I have demonstrated over and over again and it should never be in doubt. I am not Marvin Ogbonda nor do I have any relationship whatsoever with the ghost using that Facebook name or any other pseudo account for that matter. It is also not correct that Mr. Derek Mene has been giving me huge sums of money as the fake account put it for the benefit of Ogoni social media activists. These allegations are mischievous and intended to endanger my life. But my God is greater than whoever is spewing those lies against me.
For the past half a decade, I have been one of the bold faces of Rivers APC on Social Media known everywhere within Nigeria. I have devoted my time, intellectual resources and everything I have to project, defend, and protect Rivers APC and our leader Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. I have written dozens of intellectually compelling articles in reputable national dailies, online news media, blogs and other new media platforms to propagate the APC and to protect our leaders against marauding character assassins. I have done all that in defiance to clear and present danger to my life and my family in security- challenging terrain like Rivers State. It's by the mercy of God that I am alive.
Therefore, let no man trouble me. Let no man defame me. Let no interest run me down before Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi or any other leader of our party. I have paid my dues and I am willing to continue to pay my dues as long as it is right with my conviction. Those who should reward my consistency and bravery, if they cannot do that, should not blackmail me. Heaven has a way of smiling on those who are committed to excellence and my reward must come.
People should remember that we are all at the bus station, in the desperation to stop senator Abe's bus let us not miss our own bus. In politics we don't destroy people because we perceive that they may have ambition, politics after all is about ambition and political parties are the platforms for negotiating and managing different ambitions. APC is no different. This smear campaign must stop and it must stop now."
Kennedy Friday Barileilo,
Port Harcourt.
3/1/2017
Comments