By Tosin Olatokunbo
The political woes of Dr Dakuku Peterside has continued following the decision of the Rivers’ state chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC to adopt Tonye Cole as its governorship flagbearer for next year’s election.
Cole was adopted among other governorship candidates which included Tonye Princewill, based on the directive of Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transport, the magazine has learnt. The Minister, a presidential hopeful is the defacto APC leader in the oil rich state.
It was leant that the minister zeroed in on Cole among other nine candidates to further whittle down the influence of Dakuku, a former Director General of the NIMASA, who last week boasted that the APC will defeat the PDP to win the governorship election in 2023.
This is not the first time the former NIMASA boss has been sidelined by the minister, who had earlier refused to renominate him as the head of the top maritime agency after his tenure expired in 2020.
“We don’t understand what’s going on between the Minister and his political son. Dakuku would not have believed it if he had been told that he will not be given the APC governorship ticket for the second time despite his loyalty to Amaechi,” an APC stalwart in Rivers’ state said on Saturday.
He said it’s “unthinkable that Cole will be adopted again after he failed woefully against the PDP in 2019.”
But those close to the governorship candidate said the oil magnate has the capacity to turn the apple’s cart against the PDP in the 2023 election. “The minister knows what he’s doing. You just wait and see what will happen next year. Apart from being a well-known businessman, his family is well known across the country, particularly in the state. This, among other factors will come to play in the governorship. He’s the only APC candidate that can match the PDP,” a close ally of Cole said.
Cole was the party’s candidate in the state in 2019, though the APC was excluded from the ballot by INEC following a court order after a series of litigations by opposing camps of both Senator Magnus Abe and Rotimi Amaechi.
A statement by one of the governorship aspirants, Cole Princewill said Cole was a product of consensus among all the APC leaders in the state, and was not foisted on the party by the minister.
“The decision has just been made for Tonye Cole to fly the flag. It was not made by the Minister.
“It was made by the leaders of the party. The 10 aspirants plus two new names that had also indicated interest were asked to excuse themselves, while all of the leaders minus the Minister then sat and deliberated.
“We were just called back along with the Minister to be given their decision,’ he said.
Feelers that Dakuku has fallen from favour with the minister first emerged in 2020 after the minister failed to recommend him to President Muhammadu Buhari for another four years term as NIMASA DG before his tenure expired as the agency boss.
Amaechi, against all permutations in the maritime sector had refused to renew Dakuku’s tenure, rather he nominated to President Buhari, Dr Bashir Jamoh for the lucrative post.
