The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has debunked reports making the rounds that the former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has resigned his membership of the party.

The party, however, said Senator Magnus Abe and his loyalists dumped the APC in the state.

This was contained in a statement issued by the APC Publicity Secretary in Rivers State, Senibo Finebonein, on Wednesday.

Finebonein described people sharing the reports of Amaechi’s defection as “evil”.

“Let me use this opportunity to raise the alarm that just yesterday, evil people launched fake news concerning our leader, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi purporting that he has resigned from the APC. This is a lie taken from the very abyss of hell.

“Kindly ignore it and any such fake news that may be concocted and circulated in the media particularly the social media to smear the former Minister of Transportation.

“He remains a loyal member of the APC and he has re-iterated this at every opportunity and that he would work to ensure the Party resoundingly wins the 2023 elections,” he stated.

According to Finebonein, it was Abe that long ago through activities and utterances dumped the APC in the state.

‘We make bold to state without an iota of doubt that Senator Abe and his supporters had, by their actions and utterances, long ceased to be functional members of APC.

“They shunned and refused to participate in the Membership Revalidation exercise that was carried out nationwide by the party.

“They also abstained from other legitimate activities of the party, making their recent purported resignation a mere formality and part of their face-saving exit strategy aimed at deceiving the public, he added.

He further contended that the mass resignation of the APC members in Rivers State was largely by Abe’s political associates and other politicians looking for greener political pastures elsewhere who took to social media to publicise their exit.

READ ALSO: Ex-Senator Magnus Abe dumps APC

He stated: “Recently, a few members of our party in Rivers State resigned their membership of the Party. It is very pertinent to state that the persons that resigned belong to two categories.

”The first is made up of a few persons who either resigned to pursue other interests in life or exercised their right of free association by seeking greener political pastures elsewhere. To these persons, we acknowledge the contributions of some of them to the party and wish them well in their future endeavours.

“However, it has also come to our notice that a few persons that are loyal to Senator Magnus Abe have also resigned recently. These are individuals who have, for the past couple of years, spoken and acted in every way to destroy the APC in Rivers State. Led by Abe, these persons tried all they could to factionalise our party in the state.

“They connived endlessly with the governor of Rivers State and used some elements in the State Judiciary to frustrate and destroy our party through needless litigations. The culmination of their evil machinations was the exclusion of Rivers APC from the ballot in 2019.

“Evidence exists how Senator Abe and his lieutenants broke into celebration the day the party was excluded by the court from participating in that election due to their litigation.

“To start with, we believe that movements of politicians in and out of political parties in Nigeria have become part of the political culture of politicians especially towards the end of every election cycle. It cuts across all political parties.

“In what appears to be a carefully planned exit plan, close associates of Abe started resigning from the APC and making heavy weather of their exit in the social media as part of their exit plan as though they have been functional members of the party, just to hoodwink the public.”

Finebonein further alleged that Abe has been frustrating APC in Rivers State through frivolous ligitation and ochestration of destruction of party secretariat by his proxies.

He noted some loyalists of the former senator abandoned him for the APC while others joined other parties.

The publicity secretary added that their resignation marked sign of relief for the party, stressing that the APC remains better with their exit.

Finebonein further stated that the APC was in the process of reconciliation to pacify aggrieved members of the party.

He noted that the Rivers APC would abide by the 2022 Electoral Act and would work for the success of its gubernatorial candidate, Tonye Cole, in 2023.

The Star