Some of the delegates who trooped to the party secretariat complained that they could not get the forms even after they had completed payment for the purchase of the forms fearing that non-availability of the forms might affect the conduct of the ward congresses.
One of the delegates who refused to give his name for fear of victimisation asked; “If there is no sale of forms how can there be congress tomorrow? There are some conditioned precedents, certain things that ought to be done before there would be Congress, those things are not done”.
His colleague who gave his name as Wokoma claimed the forms had been taken to a hotel saying; “party activities are done at the party secretariat, not at the hotel. Am calling on Buhari that today as we are speaking, that nothing has happened.
I don’t think that tomorrow’s will hold because there are no materials, there is nowhere to buy form, nothing is happening here, tell how we are going to go to Congress tomorrow”.
In a reaction, the Publicity Secretary of the APC, Chris Finebone assured that the sale of forms would soon commence. He explained that the delay was due to the late arrival of officials of the party.
“We got a message from Abuja that they were having flight delays and so they will arrive about 3:00, 3:30 pm because they will be on the 2 0’clock flight and so we have decided that having made these efforts so far we won’t allow further delays in selling the forms and therefore in the next hour or so the sale of forms will begin at the secretariat of the party”.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Saturday ward congress of the All Progressive Congress (APC ) in Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike has appealed to all APC members in the state to be law-abiding and maintain the peace in the state.
In a press statement issued yesterday and signed by Simeon Nwakudu, his Special Adviser on Electronic Media the Governor said he was wishing all APC members, a successful and peaceful congress.
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He advised all hoteliers in the state not to allow their hotels to be used to foment trouble as was the case during the party’s last congress, when Novotel was negatively used by some persons, leading to the misconception across the country that Rivers State was in crisis.
He advised all APC Members in the state to work towards a peaceful and successful congress, devoid of rancour.
But APC in reaction said it has uncovered the plan by a group sponsored by Governor Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to destabilize Saturday congresses.
The APC alleged that the group which is suspected to have some members of APC in their fold have already gone to work.
“Information unearthed by the APC confirm that the group collected the huge sum of money from the governor with the sole purpose of discrediting the congresses through wild allegations against leaders of the party especially the leader of the party in Rivers State and Honourable Minister for Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ibiamu Ikanya amongst others”, the statement claimed.
Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, who signed the statement on behalf of the party Chairman Dr. Ibiamu Okays said; “details of the plan seem to have been rolled out already as the group has gone on air to accuse the Minister of hijacking materials of the congresses, an accusation that exposes the ignorance of the group and makes absolutely no sense at all”.
“Whereas the APC is working hard to fully expose the full dimension of the plot and the evil people that are hell-bent on destabilizing our party congresses, we urge party faithful and the general public to ignore the well-known antics of Gov. Wike, the PDP and their collaborators within and outside the APC who have sold their souls to blood money.
The party re-assures all members of strict adherence to the guidelines of the party congresses and not to be distracted by anyone or group under any guise”, the APC assured.
“The party would like our members and the general public to refuse to be deceived by these agents of doom who are likely to employ diverse means to destabilize the party in fulfilment of the agreement between them and their sponsors”.
and then