PRESS STATEMENT

UNVEILING OF BONNY APC CANDIDATES, THANK YOU MESSAGE TO OUR STAKEHOLDERS, DELEGATES, AND PARTY FAITHFUL AND CONDEMNATION OF PDP’S TREACHERY AGAINST BONNY KINGDOM

My dear brothers and sisters,

The process of selecting candidates cum flagbearers of various political parties for the various elective positions in the 2019 general elections have come and gone as the deadline given by INEC elapsed Sunday, October 10, 2018. Apparently, the stage is now set for full scale electioneering activities to commence as Nigerians would now hear from the various political parties why their candidates should be voted into office.

It is in this vein that I wish to present to you the candidates of our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Amaopusenibo Kingsley Fubara Hart and Mrs. Dabota Godswill Jumbo, who are vying for the opportunity to represent the good people of Bonny Kingdom at both the House of Representatives and Rivers State House of Assembly, respectively.

I would assume that these two individuals are well-known to us and we can agree that these two, given the quality and soundness of their pedigree, could only have been chosen through a meticulous process. Both are accomplished technocrats, successful entrepreneurs, resourceful community members and philanthropists. This painstaking approach became necessary given the APC’s commitment and determination to offer this great kingdom the best representation possible both at the state and federal parliaments.

It is important that I express my deepest appreciation to all the stakeholders who contributed in their various ways to see this happen. I thank Amaopusenibo Kingsley Fubara Hart for taking a break from his much needed rest in retirement to avail himself for service to his fatherland. I also thank Mrs. Dabota Godswill Jumbo for leaving her successful businesses to respond to the call to serve this great kingdom. Let me also thank the other aspirants, Hon. Abinye Green, Hon. Henry Halliday, and Amaopusenibo Adonye Wilcox, who, in the overarching interest of our party and kingdom, had to suspend their ambition for these two to emerge.

I also specially thank our brother from Degema, Hon. Inye Marshall Harry for heeding the bidding of our great party to respect the agelong pact between Bonny and Degema to rotate the House of Representatives position between the two LGAs and suspending his ambition.

Let me further appreciate the leadership of our great party, the APC from national to state, local government, ward, and unit level for their sense of purpose, dexterity, maturity, sagacity and dogged determination to ensure we had the best outcomes possible and have quality and marketable candidates. This gratitude extends to all other players and stakeholders who contributed to the success of the process. 

Let me now address a very salient issue in our political experience this year which had the potential of destroying our reputation, oneness, unity, and brotherliness with our neighbours, the good people of Degema Local Government Area. We all are aware of how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the spirit and letter of the existing agelong pact between Degema and Bonny Local Government Areas to rotate the House of Representatives seat between them, threw open the slot to the highest bidder.

Furthermore, the party ensured our brother and incumbent, Amaopusenibo (Hon.) Randolph Brown was tactically denied the opportunity to even contest the primary, which held in Degema in his absence. His opponent from Degema was unjustly declared the party’s candidate and our brother left to rue in his misery. He is even being intimidated with threats not to voice his reservations just as his various petitions, we hear, have been thrown into the trash can. This is utterly wicked and a very callous way to treat a Bonny man and a respectable one at that. 

The APC, in keeping with its widely acclaimed and legendary path of pursuing, projecting and promoting the interest of Bonny Kingdom, and its traditional respect for agreements, has ensured the emergence of our brother and titled citizen, Amaopusenibo Kingsley Fubara Hart as the flagbearer of our party for the seat of Degema/Bonny federal constituency in the 2019 elections.

Further to this, the APC, in demonstration of its honour and respect for the good people of Degema Local Government Area has also restricted its candidate, Amaopusenibo Kingsley Fubara Hart, to just one term in order to accord our Degema brothers the opportunity to also occupy the seat and leverage all the opportunities inherent in such an exalted office.

This was in keeping with the agelong agreement between both LGAs initiated by our political leaders then: late Dr Marshall Harry, late Senator Ibiapuye Martins-Yellowe, and late Engr. Reginald Wilcox, alongside several other eminent leaders from both LGAs in 1999. Our own brother and titled citizen, Amaopusenibo Tonye Longjohn served two terms from 1999 to 2007. He was succeeded by Dr Sokonte Davies, from Degema, who served two tenures exiting in 2015. Our dear brother, Amaopusenibo Randolph Brown was just ending his first tenure only for him to be sold out by our own brothers in the PDP for a pot of porridge. 

Like all well-meaning sons and daughters of this great kingdom of Bonny, we condemn in its entirety this opprobrious and outrageous indignity meted out to our dear brother and illustrious son of this kingdom, Amaopusenibo (Hon.) Randolph Iwo Oruene Brown, JP, and the invidious attempt to cast ancient Grand Bonny Kingdom in the worst of shades. The denial of our brother the opportunity to complete Bonny’s turn or even the opportunity to his constitutionally guaranteed right to vote and be voted for was aimed at rubbing our face in the mud and casting us aside as a people of no consequence in the political equation that determines who gets what in Rivers State and Nigeria. 

Though this evil plot came to us as a surprise, we are not altogether amazed as this devilish and demeaning act of the PDP by arbitrarily reneging on an agelong pact between two brotherly communities underpins its well-known seething propensity to trample on any and every tenet, treaty or tradition that establishes, reinforces and sustains peaceful co-existence, brotherliness, societal harmony and security between individuals and communities.   

In its desperation to cling on to power, the PDP resorted to humiliate, disenfranchise, denigrate and utterly deny the people of ancient Grand Bonny the rightful opportunity they have secured for themselves through political diplomacy to have a voice at the National Assembly. Aside not having any project or programme in Bonny LGA, the PDP has sustained a trend of humiliating Bonny sons and daughters.

Our dear sister, Amaopu-Orubo Amal Pepple was disgraced out of office by the PDP. She has now been appointed Chairman of the Minimum Wage Committee by the APC led Federal Government. Our brother, Amaopusenibo Larry Pepple, as Executive Director of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), was starved of funds and made to work under horrendous conditions until he resigned from office. And now, our dear brother, Amaopusenibo Randolph Brown has been sold for less than 30 pieces of silver. How long will this wicked party continue to subjugate, humiliate and embarrass our sons and daughters? 

At this juncture, I want to highly commend the esteemed delegates and stakeholders of the APC for refusing to be bought for a plate of deleterious porridge to betray their community. I appreciate you all for keeping faith with the established trend of the APC always looking out for the Bonny man and woman.

In demonstration of its epochal love and affection for ancient Grand Bonny Kingdom, the APC has brought several model primary schools, model healthcare centres, and now, the Bonny/Bodo Road and Bridges project, and the signing of the NLNG train 7 project, and would soon add a deep seaport to the list.

Aside these, the APC have appointed notable sons of Bonny Kingdom into very important positions in the Federal Government. These include Amaopusenibo Idabelema Hart, Raw Materials Research Council of Nigeria (RMRCN), Amaopusenibo Abinye Alex-Hart, Chairman, Governing Board of the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, and Professor Tamunoimi Abbey, as the Rector, Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny, amongst others. The APC is also ready to see that a Bonny son, Amaopusenibo Kingsley Fubara Hart retains the House of Representatives seat in the National Assembly. 

It would have been a commendable path to tread if only the PDP had emulated the APC by according the Bonny man and woman the respect we deserve. A community that accrues close to $2 billion per annum into the Federal Government coffers is not a community to trifle with and at the appropriate time, the ancient Kingdom of Grand Bonny would take its rightful place in the political configuration of this great country. And the APC would ensure that this happens in the shortest possible time.

We urge every well-meaning son and daughter of Bonny Kingdom to rise and condemn this obnoxious, disgraceful and contemptuous act of the PDP and go a notch further to vote massively against it in the 2019 elections. The dangerous antics of the party against this Kingdom have to end now and for all times. Our brothers in the PDP should at this time summon the courage to call it quits with a party that has little or no regard for them, their community and their people. Ancient Grand Bonny will be great again and we all must come together and follow the political path that will take us to the Utopia of our dreams for this great kingdom with a legendary heritage of global interactions.

Once again, congratulations Amaopusenibo Kinsley Fubara Hart and Mrs. Dabota Godswill Jumbo for emerging the candidates of our great party and first choice for all Bonny electorates. 

God bless Grand Bonny Kingdom!
God bless Rivers State!!
God bless Nigeria!!!

I remain your brother,
Hon. George Fubara Tolofari
Leader, APC, Bonny LGA