Sen. Magnus Ngei Abe, governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party in Rivers State, has said that he will be the next governor of the state.
Abe, said this during the defection of some Kalabari youths from other parties to the SDP at the weekend.
According to him, now is the turn of Rivers South East to produce the next governor of the state as the two other senatorial districts have produced governors.
His statement reads,
So as our democracy becomes stronger, as our institutions become stronger, as Nigerians learn to respect one another and treat each other fairly with respect, the issue of where anyone comes from will not matter because of what we ourselves have become but until we grow ourselves to that stage, people will always ask, it is our turn, we need to be involved, we need to be included, and those legitimate aspirations should not and cannot be denied.
So the Kalabari people have never produced an elected Governor in this dispensation, and therefore if they are agitating as one of the major blocks in Rivers State that they will also like to govern the state, that is a legitimate aspiration, and it should be looked at in the context of other aspirations that are on the table.
It was for that reason that myself in 1999, when Chief Ebenezer Isokariari ran for the office of governor, myself and other Ogoni sons and daughters, we came together and gave him full support, maximum support.
And that is why till tomorrow, Chief Ebenezer wil support me no matter what I am doing.
When he knew that I was contesting this election, he called me. When I was contesting elections in the past, he would fly down from Lagos and come and show his face, he would always show that he supports me.
He knows how hard I fought, we fought for him at that time, and did it because it was the right thing to do.
When it was the turn of the Rivers West, I supported the Kalabari people. When it was the turn of Rivers East, it was the Ogoni people, arranged by me when I was Commissioner that went to Odili that all of us, the chiefs, the academia, we were the only people in this state that went to Odili to make a case, not for ourselves but for the Ikwerre people. Now is the turn of the Rivers South-East, Kalabari is not in South-East, when it was the turn of the Rivers West where Kalabari is from, I supported them.
The Kalabaris that are saying it must be Kalabari, people should call them and ask, when that Kalabari man was running, where did they stand? Because that was the turn of the Rivers West. I stood with the Kalabari people that time. When it was the turn of the Rivers East, I stood with the Ikwerre. Now is the turn of the Rivers South East, the largest block from the Rivers South East are the Ogonis. I am form Ogoni and I will be the next Governor of Rivers State.
