THE Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has adopted the African Action Congress (AAC) as the party of choice going into the governorship and state assembly election coming up on Saturday, March 9, 2019.
Amaechi made this known while addressing supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on Wednesday, who said that the move was necessary given the fact that the court has barred the APC from fielding any candidate in the state.
“This morning, the leadership of the party met and agreed that we would work with a party called African Action Congress (AAC), while we are still in court to reclaim our mandate,” Amaechi said.
“So, on Saturday, we will vote for AAC. You must go home and vote for AAC. There should be no excuse not to vote, because there will be security for everybody. You must prepare and make sure you win the governorship election.
“The moment the governorship election is won by AAC’s candidate this Saturday and the new governor is inaugurated on May 29, 2019, by June this year, there will be local government’s chairmanship and councillorship elections. So, you should all go out and vote and make sure that you are not rigged out.”
The APC in Rivers State was unable to hold a valid governorship primary election within the period provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) thus automatically disqualifying the party from fielding any candidates in the governorship and state assembly elections in the state.
This was due to an intra-party dispute between members loyal to Amaechi and those loyal to Magnus Abe, a serving senator on the platform of the APC. Abeh was eyeing the governorship seat of Rivers State, but Amaechi had endorsed another candidate − Tonye Cole − for the position.
The AAC, which Amaechi just endorsed, is one of the 23 new political parties registered by INEC in August 2018. Its candidate for the just-concluded presidential election was Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters online newspaper, who is believed to be the brain behind the formation of the party.