Abe has not hidden his ambition to be governor of Rivers State and having failed to achieve that in 2015 is seriously gearing up for the 2019 elections to take another shot at the office an ambition that has is severing his relationship with his friend and political ally, Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and by extension the leadership of the party in Rivers state.
But speaking in Port Harcourt Sen. Abe who said he is a founding member of the party described APC as a party formed on the foundation and philosophy of doing things right.
He said; “I don’t know why people keep trying to make that insinuation. Let me say clearly that am one of the founding members of the APC, I have worked with the others to build the party and it was built on the principles of change and people should always try and acknowledge the fact that at least we are committed to it”.
Abe said he believed in the ideology of the APC, adding that “APC is more than a political party. APC is an ideology that Nigerians have imbibed, which is the ideology of change. The belief that a group of people have come together to do things right. That is what APC represents. That is why we are here.”
He said that as one of the founding members of the APC in Rivers State, he has worked with others and laboured to build the party in the state, noting that the party is a vehicle for the progress, peace and development of the state, within Nigeria’s political expression.
“In APC, the foundation, the philosophy is that the right thing must be done. So, nobody in APC can stand up in public and say he or she wants to do the wrong thing. In another gathering, people can do that and it will be accepted, but in APC, nobody can do it. That is why you keep hearing Nigerians saying they need d change because people expect that there are standards in the APC that do not exist in anywhere else.
“There is absolutely no possibility to leave where we want to make things right and go to where there is no plan to make things right. There is nothing that will make us leave where we believe things will happen.
“We will continue to look up to the leaders of the party to make things happen. The party is committed to making things happen. So, if I leave it, where will I go?”
Abe urged Rivers politicians to pay more attention to the development of the state, even as he expressed optimism that the disagreement in the state chapter of the APC would soon be resolved.
“What is happening in the party (APC), ordinarily, should not be strange. What is making it strange is that certain things appear to be targeted at a particular individual, which should not be so,” he said, expressing optimism that leaders of the party would ensure justice, fairness and equity.
On the issue of insecurity and the slain notorious kidnap kingpin the Gokana, the Ogoni-born senator said if the people would agree and be united in condemning evil, it would cease to thrive.
Senator Abe said “as much as it is possible for us to agree on evil it will end. As soon as we agreed on Don Wanny, Don Wanny died. But that same Don Wanny was operating here because when one side is saying he is bad the other side is looking for a way to protect him. Everybody knew who he was, he had a mansion, they were crafting records for him, they were attending functions for him. He was getting support from this same society despite everything that was going on but the minute all of us agreed that what he was doing was unacceptable, it ended. So if we extend that same practice across the state and come together with one voice, we will defeat insecurity”.
He agreed with other stakeholders that the pace of work on the Ogoni Clean Up exercise has been too slow but asked for understanding of the people of the constraints of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project HYPREP.
He explained that contrary to the recommendation of the United Nations Environmental Programme UNEP of $200-million annual expenditure on the programme HYPREP only accessed the paltry sum of N500-million for the year 2017 on the exercise.
The Senate Committee Chairman on Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA expressed optimism that with his recent discussions with the President on the Clean Up exercise and other issues, more money would be released for the project this year and expedite action on the exercise.
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