Two candidates, Tonye Cole and Senator Magnus Abe, have emerged winners of the parallel governorship primaries conducted by both factions of the All P
Two candidates, Tonye Cole and Senator Magnus Abe, have emerged winners of the parallel governorship primaries conducted by both factions of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State. Tonye Cole came out victorious in the indirect governorship primary held in Port Harcourt on Sunday when he polled 3,329 votes while his closest rival, Dr Dawari George, got 491 votes. Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs came a distant third with 38 votes while Abe got one vote.
It was, however, a different story at the primary held by the APC faction loyal to Abe as the senator was declared the winner of the Sunday’s direct governorship primaries conducted in the three senatorial districts of Rivers State by the APC. Abe who won with 144,929 votes followed by Dumo Lulu-Briggs who got 3,344, Dawari George getting 1,606 and Tonye Dele Cole 882 votes.
While the Rotimi Amaechi-led APC conducted an indirect primary on the Igboukwu field in D-Line, Port Harcourt, the Magnus Abe faction adopted the direct governorship primary across different local government areas of the state. Earlier before the exercise in Port Harcourt by the Amaechi-led APC, there were explosions near the secretariat of the party at about 12.30pm.The last explosion scared supporters of the Amaechi-led APC as most of them rushed out to have a glimpse of what happened less than 50 metres away from the party secretariat.
Before the primaries, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the APC in the state, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, accused the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of trying to impose his preferred aspirant, Tonye Cole, on the party. Lulu-Briggs also claimed that certain persons had been handpicked from various wards as delegates to the primary in breach of the party’s constitution and guidelines. He explained that names were being added and deleted from the delegates’ list. Lulu-Briggs, however, called for the postponement of the governorship primary in the state, saying this was necessary in order to enhance transparency.
