Amaechi Loses As Court Declares Aguma From Rival Faction Rivers APC Chairman

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Amaechi Loses As Court Declares Aguma From Rival Faction Rivers APC Chairman

Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, lost out again in the crisis bedevilling the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, as a high court in the state on Tuesday declared Igo Aguma, of a rival faction, the acting chairman of the party in the state.

The APC has barred its members from appealing the judgement.

Mr Aguma belongs to a faction of the APC in Rivers that is loyal to Magnus Abe, a former governorship aspirant in the state.

Mr Amaechi is a former governor of Rivers and one of APC’s most influential leaders, but he has been having it tough getting the APC in Rivers to unite in the party’s quest to wrestle power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the oil-rich state.

The protracted crisis in the party prompted the court to declare that the APC did not have a governorship candidate in Rivers in 2019, paving the way for Governor Nyesom Wike of the PDP to have an easy second term victory.

Mr Aguma, a former member of the House of Representatives and former political ally to Mr Amaechi, parted ways with him over his (Amaechi) insistence that Mr Abe would not be the APC governorship candidate in the 2015 and the 2019 elections.

Mr Aguma filed a lawsuit in December 2019 against the APC, including its national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, for setting up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party in Rivers.

The setting up of the caretaker committee contravened the APC rules, Mr Aguma had told the court.

The court presided by Justice George Omereji declared that Mr Aguma suffered injustice and his civil rights violated when the APC set up the caretaker committee.

The APC in its reaction to the development has barred its members from appealing the court judgment.