Rivers Guber Race: Forget 2015 …Abel-Tariah Tells Kalabari Aspirants * He's Suffering From Eclipse Of Reasoning ~ Opunabo Inkoh-Tariah

By Kunle Makinde

THE gubernatorial candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the 2011 governorship election in Rivers State, Dr. Itekina Abel-Tariah has advised all aspirants to the Brick House in 2015 from Kalabari Kingdom to discard the idea.

Speaking exclusively to Port Harcourt Telegraph, Dr. Abel-Tariah says: “I believe the Kalabaris cannot make it in 2015. This is because they are not united. Presently in Kalabari ethnic nationality, there is no visible leader, name them, from Alabo Tonye Graham Douglas to Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, all of them are seeking for their personal gains. They are looking for their stomachs and not taking actions or making any move that will benefit the corporate goal and interest of the entire Kalabari kingdom. They should forget 2015. They cannot have it.”

Dr. Abel-Tariah clearly advised Prince Tonye Princewill, one of the Kalabari leading aspirant to the Rivers State Government House in 2015, to forget his dream of succeeding the incumbent Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. According to him, “Tonye Princewill cannot even win in Kalabari kingdom not to talk of the entire Rivers State. Amaechi successfully used him and dumped him. He is going nowhere in 2015.”

However, Sir Opunabo Inkoh-Tariah, the Action Congress candidate for the House of Representatives in 2011 said whoever says that the Kalabari Kingdom should not aspire to the office of the governor of Rivers State in 2015 is “suffering from eclipse of reasoning.” He said since the creation of Rivers State in 1967 by the regime of General Yakubu Gowon, no indigene of Kalabari has ruled the state, “The best we have had is in the appointment of Late S. D. Dagogo Jack. He was appointed as a Deputy to a military administrator.”

To Sir Opunabo Inkoh-Tariah 2015 is the ideal year for an indigene of Kalabari Kingdom to take over the mantle of leadership in Rivers State.

In his words “anything short of this is unfair and unacceptable.” According to him, nobody can wish away the Riverine/Upland political arrangement in Rivers State. “Now they are no longer talking of Riverine/Upland power sharing but what they are saying now is on the basis of Senatorial Districts. But Hon. Dakuku Peterside is from a Senatorial District that is equally Riverine. You cannot give it to Ogoni, because the upland geopolitical zone has produced successive governors since 1999. Anyone that want a candidate from the upland to succeed Amaechi is not being fair to the political plight of the Riverine geopolitical zone. And we will not acceptthat.”

According to him, “who will succeed Amaechi is in the hands of God. Even Amaechi himself never knew he will be governor. But if you are now saying that you have a premonition of who will succeed you, then it means that the 2015 governorship election has been conducted and the result is already available.”

As things are, there is strong speculation that the next governor is most likely to emerge from the Rivers South-East Senatorial District. This is because the district is yet to produce any governor since the creation of the State just like the Kalabari kingdom.

Already in the 2015 governorship race from the Riverine areas are four persons whose names are being touted.

One of them whose name is making the rounds is the former speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Tonye Harry. There is Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru, brother of former National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus. Next is Hon. Dakuku Peterside who is currently the chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Downstream in the House of Representatives.

Though he has not formally declare his intention, Prince Tonye Princewill is also seen as making frantic efforts through his Princewill Political Associates (PPA) to succeed Amaechi in 2015.

From the run of events, the Kalabari feel strongly that they should get the nod.

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