Rivers Guber: Tonye Cole takes final decision on Saturday polls, declares support for another candidate

The candidates of the All Progressives Congress, in Rivers State, Pastor Tonye Dele Cole has declared his support for the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, in Rivers State, Awara Biokpomabo.

Cole in a statement made available to Fidelis Chidi Blog accepted non-inclusion of his party in the ballot ahead of the governorship and State Assembly elections.

Recall, that the leader of APC in the state, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi had on Wednesday in an ongoing town hall meeting in Aleto community in Eleme Local Government Area of the state endorsed AAC candidate.

Amaechi said the decision was borne out of the several litigations surrounding the APC in the state but expressed hope that the party will reclaim its mandate in court.
Reacting to the development in a statement to us on Friday, the APC governorship candidate, said, “Over the past few months you have stood by me in prayer and encouraged me in no small means on this journey in politics. Those prayer works is evidenced in my life and testimony throughout the battles we took on and I have nothing but praise to God for using you as a spiritual anchor in very trying times.
“Yesterday the Court of Appeal struck out our case on the grounds that The Supreme Court rulings make it impossible for them to deal with the case and therefore we must head back up for the Supreme Court to determine the substantive matter.

“For this reason, neither I nor any APC candidate will be in the ballot this Saturday. This is but a pit stop and I will be assessing the next steps following the completion of the election.
“Please by no means take this as a regrettable endeavour as nothing I have done to date can compare with the life lessons I have learnt these past months and how truly fulfilled I am of the potential available to me now to impacting multitudes in the years ahead.
“As a party, we have adopted the AAC candidate as our preferred choice and we trust we have made that the right choice in who will lead Rivers State next.
“Finally let me enjoin us to persevere a few more days in our waiting and raising praise unto our Lord until the election is done and dusted for it is critical they are concluded peacefully, with no loss of life and most importantly that God’s choice for elected office holders is enthroned in Nigeria. God bless you.”