CELESTINE AKPOBARI was the embattled APC chairman of Khana Local Government Area in Rivers state, until July 2015 when Governor Nyesom WIke dissolved the council, an action that has been challenged in court. An Ogoni rights activist, Akpobari wants to be governor of Rivers State in 2019 on the APC platform. He called our Port Harcourt Bureau Chief, Bisi Olaniyi, to react to some issues raised by his kinsman, Senator Magnus Abe, in an interview we published three weeks ago. Excerpts of his views.
What is your political aspiration for 2019?
In 2019, I want to contest for the office of governor of Rivers State under the ALL Progressive Congress platform.
Is the leader of your party in the State, Rotimi Amaechi, aware of your ambition? Have you discussed it with him? What was his reaction?
I have mentioned it to one or two persons and they have been discussing it with the Honourable Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. But on Tuesday 25th April 2017, the Ogoni leadership paid Amaechi a visit in Abuja and we told him that the Ogoni people are solidly behind him and that because of the little misunderstanding between him and Senator Magnus Abe; that he should not think that Ogoni people are queuing behind Magnus Abe against him; and that when it is time to lift the ban on political activities in the state that he should still consider Ogoni for governor being that Ogoni people are the only people in the state that are yet to become governor, deputy governor, speaker or chief judge.
And he said had sympathy for Ogoni people and that he doesn’t know who will be governor of Rivers State; and that he’s praying to God and hopes it will be an Ogoni man and that whatever it is, God and the people have the final say. That he (Amaechi) has never said that Ogonis will not be the governor and that he is not God.
On the 7th of October, 2017 in Port Harcourt, the Khana LGA caucus met with Amaechi, Ojukaiye Flag-Amachree (APC chieftain) and Chief Emeka Beke (APC secretary in Rivers State) were in the meeting. So during the course of discussion when he was mentioning the names those he (Amaechi) said he heard are interested in getting the APC governorship ticket, Ojukaiye shouted what about Celestine? And he (Amaechi) responded ‘Celestine believes in God and if he wants to become governor nobody will stop him. ‘So by saying that in a public meeting, it means that he’s aware of my ambition and he’s not against it. So, I take that to mean that he is not against anybody aspiring for that office under the APC.
Like Sen. Magnus Abe, you are also from the Ogoni ethnic group. What do you make of Abe’s allegations that Amaechi has structured the APC in Rivers State, for NIMASA DG, Dakuku Peterside to emerge as the party’s gubernatorial candidate and as a result, he is opposed to any other person running for the office of governor under APC in Rivers State?
I read what Magnus Abe said in the interview with your paper and I want to say that that meeting was not held in public. Amaechi is alive and Abe is alive. They are two friends, till tomorrow. I still believe that they are two friends and that those who are meddling in the affairs between Amaechi and Magnus may just be burning their fingers. We all know who Amaechi is, that he does not have a stony heart. His looks may appear unapproachable and tough but he doesn’t have a stony heart.
Their relationship was so strong that for many year, everything about Ogoni appointments, Amaechi entrusted that to Magnus Abe’s hands. He (Abe) was deciding where and who gets projects or appointments for years. So that kind of relationship is something that we are very careful about, knowing who Amaechi is, a man with a large heart that can accommodate those that wronged him. Whatsoever that is discussed privately should be left to them. I leave that to Magnus. But what I can talk about is my personal experience with Amaechi as regards my governorship aspiration and it’s totally at variance with Magnus Abe’s claims.
What do you make of claims that Amaechi is against the Ogonis and does not want an Ogoni person to be governor of Rivers State?
No no no. He does not dislike the Ogonis. I told you we met on the 25th of April 2017 and we met again on the 7th of October. We all know that if Amaechi didn’t want to hear anything from Ogoni he won’t even mention it. I don’t think that he is against the Ogoni people because if he was against the Ogoni people, he would not tell us in that April 25th meeting that he is not against an Ogoni man becoming governor. He made a man (Magnus Abe) who is from Ogoni, Secretary to Government (SSG) in his first tenure. In his second term, he appointed another Ogoni son, George Feyii, again SSG and Victor Giadom, also from Ogoni was his commissioner for works and several others. So, for anyone to tell me that he hates Ogoni people, I won’t and don’t believe it. If there is any person that fought Amaechi and his government, it’s me, Celestine Akpobari. When he wanted to demolish the waterfronts, I was at the forefront against it; I brought Amnesty International into that issue,. When they wanted to acquire land for the banana plantation in Ogoni, it was myself that took that matter to court to stop them, but when he heard that I took the form to become LGA council chairman, he supported me and I became the chairman, of Khana LGA. That is the kind of person Amaechi is. I completely disagree with any person that would tell me that Amaechi hates Ogoni people.
Again, the only memorial in honour of Ken Saro-Wiwa was a structure builty by Amechi in the University of Port Harcourt. It is still standing now. He did that as a speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. If he hates Ogoni people, why would he do that?
Source: The Nation
