Sen. Andrew Uchendu, the Senator representing Rivers East Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that there was no crisis rocking the party.
Uchendu said the pursuit of interest by members of the party could not constitute a crisis for the party in Rivers.
“It is when there are factions in the political structure of the party that you will say we have a crisis”, he told NAN.
“But as we speak, the entire structures of the party from the state to the wards are intact.
“Sen. Magnus Abe, my friend has a gubernatorial ambition, for crying out loud that is his constitutional right.
“He is free to pursue his ambition but he shouldn’t see it that if I don’t support him it implies that there is crisis in the party; he should go on with his ambition.
“Yes, some us felt he was starting too early and heating-up the polity which pursuing personal agenda normally generates but now is this is the right time? I wish him luck.
“It will be wrong for anybody to imagine or say that because Mr A, B or C is not supporting his or her ambition, therefore there is crisis in the party,” he added.
The federal lawmaker described a recent APC stakeholders meeting in Rivers as a convergence of Sen. Abe’s supporters.
He said that his colleague Sen. Abe, could not say that the meeting he had with his supporters was an expanded Rivers APC meeting.
“If he said that, I’m sure he might not have told himself the truth or there is disagreement among his supporters that he wants to resolve.
“But he cannot call that APC stakeholders meeting, he is my colleague, I respect him a lot and he knows that, that English he used is wrong,” the Senator said.
Uchendu also denied the rumour that he would no longer campaign for elective position after the 2015 election.
According to him, I never said in Afara, Etche Local Government Area, that I will not campaign again.
“What was said in Afara because of the rerun in the entire local government area was, please dear people of Etche, vote for me.
“At the end of my tenure, we will all be supporting you to take over from me.
“My tenure has not ended, it may end in 2019 or go beyond that, I am not playing politics about this, I am a man of integrity and I maintain my word,” he said.
The lawmaker said that he would run for election again in 2019 if his party, the APC asks him to seek re-election.
“I will campaign again, I never said I will not campaign again; Sen. Andrew Uchendu is not resigning to go to anywhere.
“I am in politics till my strength can’t carry me anymore. Since 2003, I have never on my own gone out to say I am running for any office.
“I have been lucky because it had always been that my party will call me to run for any office it decides.
“Go and check the records, I ran for House of Representatives three times, it was my party that called me to run, my party called me to run in 2015,” he claimed.
“If my party says no, you are not running, I will not run because I am a core party man.
“But my history in election had been come and run because I have what it takes to win election,” the lawmaker said.
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