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Tag: SENATOR Magnus Abe

  • PDP leaders should be blamed for Ogoni crisis – Senator Abe

    PDP leaders should be blamed for Ogoni crisis – Senator Abe

    The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Rivers Southeast Senatorial District in the March 19 rerun, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has stated that the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be blamed for the crisis in Ogoni land.

    Abe, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) in the 7th National Assembly, stated this Friday  in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

    The APC chieftain said: “It is important that I make this statement with regard to the crisis arising from  the military’s attempt to effect the arrest of Solomon Ndigbara (aka Osama bin Laden, an ex-militant leader), at Yeghe-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area, which led to the hoodlums burning down my Senatorial Liaison Office in Bori-Ogoni, Khana LGA.

    “I am happy that Governor Nyesom Wike, as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) knew and approved the military operations in Yeghe, Ogoniland. There is nothing wrong if he, as the CSO and after appraising the situation in Ogoni, approves that the military should raid the area of criminal elements and maybe recovers arms.

    “The person who stands to be blamed squarely for the crisis is Solomon Ndigbara and his group, who chose to engage the military in a shootout. Information available to me points to the fact that there was a deliberate attempt by the PDP to incite the people against my person and the APC.

    “PDP leaders know pretty well that we are innocent, but in their desperate attempt to exploit the situation for their political gain, they want to hang it on us. It is sad that this type of politics is being played by people who hold responsible positions.

    “It is unfortunate that the governor (Wike) visited the home of ex-militant leader, Solomon Ndigbara, in Yeghe community, but did not deem it fit to visit my burnt senatorial liaison office building at Bori, which is less than two kilometres away from Yeghe. Yet, this is the CSO, who visited areas affected by the crisis. As leaders, we should be sincere to ourselves and show good examples to our followers.”

    Abe, a former Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), who hails from Bera-Ogoni in Gokana LGA, also pleaded with Ogoni people to eschew violence, lawlessness and ensure that they maintain peace.

    He admonished Rivers people not to play politics with the military operations in Ogoni, since the victims of the crisis could have been people from any of the political parties and religion.

    Abe, a former Rivers Commissioner for Information, noted that the sad reality of the destruction of his liaison office showed that all was not well and could discourage prospective investors to invest in the area.

    The Senator called on his supporters to remain calm, in the face of provocation.

    Wike, a former Minister of State for Education, during his visit to Yeghe and Bori on Thursday, accused leaders of the APC of being behind the violence and killings in Ogoni, by allegedly inviting the soldiers, declaring that as the CSO, he would not allow lawlessness and impunity.

    Rivers APC Chairman, Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, however, insisted that the violence in Ogoni was planted, watered and nurtured by the incendiary remarks made by Wike at the 50th birthday of Senator Lee Maeba of the PDP at his Luuwa hometown in Khana LGA of Rivers state last Saturday, where he declared that the re-election bid of Senator Abe must be stopped at all costs.

  • Abe to voters: say no to agents of violence

    Abe to voters: say no to agents of violence

    The lawmaker representing Rivers Southeast in the National Assembly and All Progressives Party (APC) candidate for the 2015 senatorial election, Senator Magnus Abe, has appealed to Nigerians not to elect politicians who encourage violence.

    He said Nigeria would change for the better immediately the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is declared the winner of the February 14 presidential election.

    Abe spoke yesterday while fielding questions from reporters shortly after a special church service to rededicate his re-election mandate organised by the Rivers South-East Ministers Forum (RSMF) at St. Barth’s Anglican Church, Bera, in Gokana Local Government Area.

    He added that politicians encouraging youths to engage in violence, including tearing of campaign posters and banners of opponents and shooting of gun, while their children are studying in the best schools are not worthy to be elected as leaders in the country.

    “My advice to elders; those of us who call ourselves leaders; Rivers people and indeed Nigerians is that time has come for us to look at the quality and characters of those we regard as leaders; ascertain what they represent and what they can offer.

    “People who are planning one set of thing for their family and another for your own children should be rejected through your Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC); if anybody sees me telling any child to go and tear posters; to go and shoot gun; to go and harass people; they should also reject me.”

    Abe went on: “The day you hear the announcement that Gen. Buhari has won as President of Nigeria, everybody will change their behaviour the next morning. They won’t wait for Gen. Buhari to be sworn in. You know and I know that immediately Buhari is elected, Nigeria will change.”

    Pastor Henry Young of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Port Harcourt, described the re-election bid of Abe as serious, saying that only serious issues were brought to the Altar of God.

    Highpoint of the service attended by a mammoth crowd was the re-dedication of the mandate of Abe and other candidates of the APC for the National Assembly and Rivers State House of Assembly elections from the Rivers Southeast Senatorial District.

  • TUC decries Senator Abe’s shooting, others

    TUC decries Senator Abe’s shooting, others

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has criticised the shooting of Senator Magnus Abe, the lawmaker representing Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, and some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who gathered at the Rivers State College of Arts and Science for a rally.

    In a statement, the President of the union, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, decried the shooting and clashes in the state. He said they were orchestrated by some politicians to intimidate their opponents before 2015 general elections.

    He blamed the perpetrators.

    He said: ”We are particularly concerned that members of the Rivers State Police Command are allegedly responsible for the shooting.

    ”The police claim they shot no bullet at the venue of the rally, so we wonder who did. One thing for sure: each pre-election year since 1999 has been marred by politically motivated murders and wanton threats to peaceful existence. But for providence the life of Senator Abe might have been wasted. Hopefully, more details on this latest incident will soon unfold.

    “We are also disturbed by reports of proliferation of arms and ammunition in the country. We recall reported assertions by Frank Mbah, spokesman of Nigeria Police Force, that there are over 10 million illegal arms in West Africa and that about 70 per cent of them are in the hands of Nigerians.”

    He further said two million guns were in the hands of civilians – one million registered and the balance illegally held by criminals and others.  If these claims are anything to go by, it means that nobody is safe in this country, he added.

    The congress recalled  the Kebbi State Police Command’s discovery of caches of arms and ammunition buried by unknown persons, thereby confirming reports of massive arms build-up across the country.

    “Also last week, three people were reportedly killed when security agents engaged some unidentified gunmen in a battle to save members of the family of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State. If left unchecked, these incidents and their likes could disrupt our hard-earned democracy.

    ”As if to confirm our fears, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has identified the problem of insecurity as one of the major impediments to the conduct of elections in Nigeria. It is our hope that the security challenges in Rivers State, the Northeast and other parts of the country will be resolved before 2015. We certainly do not subscribe to an atmosphere that would render the peaceful conduct of elections impossible and prompt the postponement of the elections,” he said.

    TUC chief calls on the Presidency and other security agencies to take pro-active steps to restore peace and security to the country.

  • Rivers crisis: Jonathan forgets he is president

    Rivers crisis: Jonathan forgets he is president

    SENATOR Magnus Abe (Rivers South-East), chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), was last Sunday reportedly shot by policemen purporting to disperse a rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement in Port Harcourt. The rally itself was yet to begin. In a classic understatement, the police described shooting the organisers of the rally with rubber bullets as using minimum force. There are not many democracies in the world in which a serving senator could be so casually shot and for about a week nothing has happened other than mere investigations. But Nigeria is not an ordinary democracy. Here, perhaps because of constant public buffeting of National Assembly members, legislators have become accustomed to underestimating their own strengths and influence, while Nigerians do not feel obligated to defending their representatives.

    But what is even more significant is that President Goodluck Jonathan has not felt it fit to empathise with the victims, show his displeasure, denounce the brutal law enforcement methods used by the police, and order immediate probe. He obviously sees the matter from the partisan perspective. Senator Abe is known to support Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who in recent months has become both a thorn in the president’s flesh and his most animated nemesis. Indeed, for the president and his wife, the continuing crisis in Rivers is a very sentimental thing. They have no incentives to be rational about it.

    Nearly one week after the unfortunate incident, in which some people including children were injured as trigger-happy and increasingly uncontrollable policemen went berserk in Port Harcourt, the president has not said a word. President Jonathan does not often act presidential, even though he is constantly presented with opportunities to act as one. But in the Senator Abe shooting, he had a sterling opportunity to act presidential for once. But as he is wont, he failed to grab the chance. In his view, and in the estimation of his many hawkish aides, Governor Rotimi has become unnecessarily strident in his opposition to the president, and the governor’s vituperations and excesses needed degrading countermeasures.

    The police have defended their scandalous methods. The Commissioner of Police in the state, the nefarious stooge Mbu Joseph Mbu, in an attempt to deflect or evade questions on the reckless shooting, cynically painted a gory picture of the damage live bullets could cause, without acknowledging his men used rubber bullets. Then he added incredulously that the rally organisers did not secure police permit, defiantly ignoring court judgements that reiterated the unconstitutionality of seeking police permits for rallies. More crucially, neither the police nor federal law officers have been struck by the scandal of using brutal force against a rally that was even yet to begin. Obviously conscious of federal backing for their methods in the past one year and more, the police under Mr Mbu have continued to overreach themselves. Senator Abe’s shooting was, therefore, inevitable.

    When the Senate resumes, and notwithstanding their stultifying conservatism and indulgent support for the executive, Nigerians should expect some fireworks. They may be timid and devoid of ideology, but they know, as the rest of us, that if they let this indignity pass without having the head of Mr Mbu and perhaps a few other heads on a platter, they would become a byword among the people, shoved and slapped on the street by every miscreant masquerading as a law enforcement officer.