Former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi has revealed that it was his predecessor Peter Odili, that advised him to go to court to reclaim his mandate in 2007.
Amaechi made this known while speaking at a consultative meeting with executives, delegates and other party faithful at the Rivers State APC Secretariat during the weekend.
The former governor, who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, said that he was ready to throw in the towel in 2007 but Odili had advised him to seek redress in court.
Amaechi dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the Federal High Court, Abuja for substituting his name for Celestine Omehia who had not participated in the party’s governorship primary.
Amaechi won the case and Omehia was removed from office after five months as Rivers State governor.
According to Amaechi: “Let me tell you something about loyalty. In 2007, we were in a meeting and somebody asked me ‘if Dr. Peter Odili says you will not run for the office of governor, what will you do?’
“I said ‘I will surrender and support whoever he brings.’ We fought the battle for me to be Governor because Dr. Odili called me and said ‘go to court,’ if not we had met as a group and said we would stand by his choice. But he called me and said, ‘…go to court.’’
This article was originally published on Nigeria News