Governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in March 18 governorship elections in Rivers state, Sen Magnus Abe, has withdrawn his petition before the elections tribunal challenging the outcome of the exercise.

Abe, who recently hailed the relocation of the tribunal from Port Harcourt to Abuja, told party leaders in the Rivers state capital on Sunday that the decision, though personal, was reached in consultation and agreed with the party hierarchy at state and national levels.

He said, “Having made a very clear review of the situation and what is happening in the state, I’ve decided in consultation with the party at the state and national that I withdraw my petition at the election petition tribunal”

He explained that he took the decision, “In the interest, first of those who have suffered and laboured so much in this politics in support of our course, more importantly in the interest of our state, so that we begin to reduce the bickering and confusion in the state in order to give us all an opportunity to be able to move forward with our lives.

“I take this decision, very conscious of the pains, the trauma, of the confusion it will bring to a lot of you who wanted that opportunity to present your pains before the public in a court of law so the court have the opportunity to decide what happened to us here in the state (Rivers) whether it was good or bad.

“That would have been our joy and we were committed and determined to bring that to past but at the end of the day, politics is not a single person’s sport. It is a team sport and playing with members of your team, you take decisions such as we have in the wider interest of the entire team and not to satisfy anyone person or individual.

“I know a lot of you will be very pained or may be very upset by this decision, but I say to you the interest of all of us overrides the interests of anyone of us,” he added,

On Governor Nyesom Wike chiding him for allegedly de-marketing Rivers in Abe’s support of the relocation of the election tribunal to Abuja, the SDP candidate countered that Wike and the state ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who allegedly attacked the opposition and compromised due electoral process to gain undue advantage were the ones de-marketing Rivers and not him who told the truth about the unstable state of Rivers under Wike. (Vanguard)

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