2023: I won’t support Cole as Rivers APC candidate, my name will be on ballot – Abe

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Magnus Abe, has said he will not support Tonye Cole, who is the party’s governorship candidate in Rivers State.

Abe, a former lawmaker that represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, is nursing the ambition to succeed outgoing Governor Nyesom Wike under the APC.

“No I will not support Tonye Cole. I think that is clear to everybody,” Abe said during an interview on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm.

He accused Cole of not paying his dues and pointed to the corruption allegations against him.

Abe added: “I am not part of how he became a candidate, he has not been part of our party to my knowledge, and he didn’t contribute anything to the establishment of the party. He has no record of service to our State.

“There is an allegation that over $55 million of Rivers State Government money was transferred to him by Rotimi Amaechi in a government in which I served and I didn’t even know about it. So how will I now go and support such a person to now take over the Government of Rivers State?”

Although Abe lost to Cole in the Rivers APC governorship primary on May 26, he remains confident that his name will appear on the ballot in next year’s governorship election.

He also insisted that he will not defect to another political party in his bid to become governor of the State.