2023: Amaechi Loyalists Leave APC Days After He Told Them To Vote For Party Candidate

By Adeleye Kunle

Some staunch supporters and allies of former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi have begun to abandon the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
The development has resurrected fears that all is not well with the APC in Rivers State, just months before the 2023 general elections.

According to Track News, some of Amaechi’s loyalists who have defected from the APC in the last week include Dawari George, Marvin Yobana, Nkemka Amadi, and Robinson Elechi.

Ibim Semenitari, his former Commissioner for Information and Communications, is the latest to join the trend, according to Naija News.

This comes just days after he urged his supporters not to be angry, but to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 elections.

Amaechi told his supporters on Saturday, July 2 in Port Harcourt not to be discouraged by the outcome of the APC presidential primaries, but to go all out to ensure the party’s victory at the polls.

According to Naija News Amaechi finished second in the Abuja primaries, losing to former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Addressing thousands of his supporters who greeted him and followed him from the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, to the APC state secretariat in Port Harcourt, Amaechi said that regardless of their feelings about the outcome of the primaries, they must vote for the APC.

Semenitari, a former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), like others before her, did not reveal which political party they will join next.

“I write to resign my membership in APC with effect from today,” Semenitari wrote in her resignation letter.

“I appreciate the friendship, camaraderie, and opportunities to serve my state, region, and country that this platform has provided me, and I wish the party well.”

As previously reported by Naija News, George, a former Energy and Natural Resources Commissioner under Amaechi, confirmed his resignation from the APC on Friday, July 8, 2022.

His letter of resignation was addressed to the Chairman of the APC Ward 1 in Rivers State’s Asari-Toru local government.

Though he gave no reason for his decision to leave the APC, the former Commissioner was one of the governorship candidates who lost out when the party’s 19 leaders chose Tonye Cole as the APC’s consensus candidate for the Rivers 2023 governorship election.

Yobana cited some party activities that conflict with his personal interests and political ideology as reasons for leaving the party in his resignation letter.

Amaechi, on the other hand, had promised to intervene in the All Progressives Congress (APC) crisis in Rivers State.

Amaechi told journalists that he is returning to the state to settle the squabbles among APC members, noting that whenever there is a transition in the party, there will be disagreements.

This article first appeared on Track News