Confusion as 2 governorship candidates emerge from parallel APC primaries in Rivers

macfranc007 September 30, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Buchi Obichie

- The Rivers state chapter of the APC has produced 2 governorship candidates from parallel primary elections

- The Rotimi Amaechi-led faction produced Tonye Cole as its candidate; while Senator Magnus Abe’s faction produced him as its candidate

- In his faction, Magnus Abe won with 144,929 votes, while Tonye Cole was leading with 1,236 votes in his faction, as of the time of the filing of this report

Two governorship candidates have emerged from parallel primary elections in the Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Direct primary election was adopted by the faction of the party loyal to Senator Magnus Abe, while the faction loyal to the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, went for indirect primaries, The Cable reports.

NAIJ.com gathers that there were four candidates, overall, who were vying for the party’s gubernatorial ticket in 2019.

The Amaechi-led faction produced Tonye Cole, former executive director of Sahara Group, as its candidate; while Abe’s faction produced him as its candidate.

The returning officer for the Abe faction, Sam Eligwe, said the senator won with 144,929 votes, while Lulu-Briggs came a distant second with 3,444 votes. In third place was Dawari George with 1606 votes while Cole pulled in 882 votes.

In the Amaechi faction, however, Cole had taken the lead, as at the time of this report, with 1,236 votes. George pulled in 491 votes to claim second spot; while Luru-Briggs and Abe were at third and fourth positions with 31 and 1 vote respectively.

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Recall that NAIJ.com previously reported that Senator Magnus Abe kicked against the purported endorsement of Tonye Cole as the APC’s 2019 gubernatorial candidate for Rivers state by the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

Abe said that Cole lacked the requisites to be the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the state.

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