OGONI REJECTS RIVERS APC CONSENSUS GOV CANDIDATE.

SCORES of Ogoni people took to the streets in Port Harcourt on Thursday to protest the endorsement of a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dakuku Peterside, as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
Peterside was on Wednesday chosen as the APC governorship candidate in Rivers State ahead of the member representing Rivers South East in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe.
The lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives emerged as the party’s consensus governorship candidate during a stakeholders’ meeting.
But the people of Ogoni, who were mainly youths vowed that they would not accept the verdict of the stakeholders and advised the leader of the party and State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi to rescind the decision and conduct a governorship primary.
The youths had marched through the popular Azikiwe Road to the main gate of the Government House in Port Harcourt, insisting that the governor betrayed Ogoni by ‘anointing’ Peterside as the governorship candidate of the APC.
The protesters, who had earlier blocked major points of the East-West Road in Eleme Local Government Area, chanted war songs, even as some of them threw stones that damaged some vehicles parked near the Government House.
It took the intervention of policemen, who shot sporadically into the air to disperse the protesters, a development that forced banks on Azikiwe Road to close temporarily.
Customers, who were inside the banks, were not allowed to move out while those intending to come in were asked to go back as a result of the deafening sound of gunshots from security operatives.
The police also fired teargas canisters to disperse the surging crowd of protesters, who maintained that they would continue to protest until the governor changed his mind on the choice of governorship candidate.
One of the protesters, who identified himself as Baridam described Abe as the frontline governorship aspirant and wondered why the APC decided to settle for a consensus candidate.
“We are surprised that a consensus candidate was named at a time we are expecting that the governorship candidate for the party will emerge after the APC governorship primary.
“It is injustice to Ogoni people and we will continue to protest until the needful is done. We are calling for a primary election for the governorship aspirants in APC. We will not support the APC if this is not done,” Baridam stated.
However, the Public Relations Officer of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Mr. Legborsi Esaen, explained that the people of Ogoni felt betrayed by the action of the governor.
“We have resolved to support any party that presents an Ogoni as its governorship candidate. We are no longer prepared to play second fiddle in the politics of Rivers State. It is either governorship or nothing”.
“We were informed that some Ogoni youths were staging a peaceful protest in front of Government House and one of them was shot. We are still trying to locate where he is and how serious his condition is.
But the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ahmad Mohammad, said that nobody was injured or killed during the protest at the Government House in Port Harcourt, maintaining that the police did not fire any gunshot during the protest.
Source: ‪#‎Punch_News‬.