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The city of Port Harcourt went agog with great joy and jubilation, on Tuesday September 18, 2018, as the people in their massive numbers thronged the Port Harcourt International Airport to welcome one of their own and a great son of Rivers state, Chief Barr. Dumo Lulu-Briggs, as he arrived from Abuja to formally meet his people and tell them in person, that he had finally answered their call and accepted their request and appeal, to contest in the race to become their governor come 2019.

It was a spectacular sight to behold. Volunteers moved by their love for this man, welcomed him with pomp, glamour and joyful celebration. Different ethnic groups in the Rivers family, decked out in their colourful traditional attires and resplendent in their cultural glory, turned out enmasse to show their solidarity and limitless, honest, unconditional support for Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs.

Addressing the mammoth crowd of supporters and APC faithful who had joined him in a peaceful and carnival like rally through some major streets in Port Harcourt all the way the his campaign headquarters, popularly known as ‘Liberation Home’, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs urged them to believe in their dreams and hold it firm, even as he encouraged them to keep working on their dreams because nothing good comes easy.

In his words, “With the gift of my innocence, I tell you that ever so often, that which ought to be, never comes for free; You will have to work for it. If the mountain was smooth, you couldn’t climb. Even when God promised us Canaan, He had to take us through the wilderness. I can tell you that we are not against someone, we are for something. We are for an ideal, an idea whose time has come. That you must begin to matter; that government must be about you and your aspirations, and that you must be allowed to pursue those aspirations. And that the minimum that society must do is to encourage you to pursue those aspirations. We have had no varieties in our lives, just the vanities of our leaders that we have had to endure and we say never again!

“What you need is your potential. The opportunities you get, will no longer be by who you know, but by who you are. Our party, the APC stands for change and that means that old things are passed away; and the new thing is opportunity for all; and that if you have an aspiration, have the courage to see it through. You have to believe in yourself for others to believe in you. If it is about you, then we must see it to a logical conclusion. If it is about jobs, about your education, about your healthcare, we cannot give up on you. It will not be easy, but we cannot give up at the first, second, third or even fourth defeat. We have to fight until that thing which belongs to you, gets to you,” he rallied the crowd.

Quoting late Mohammed Ali, the world’s famous boxer, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs said: “Impossible is just a dare. Impossible is a big word thrown around by small men who find it okay to live in the world that they have been given, rather than explore what you have to change that world. Impossible is nothing!”, he encouraged his supporters, urging them to continue to believe and keep hope alive.

He then informed them of the forthcoming APC primaries and also charged them to register as APC members in their different wards so that they can cast their votes in the primaries and while urging them to spread the word to their homes and communities and to tell everyone that their time has come, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, also thanked them profusely for their support and loyalty and promised never to give up on them.

“I have entered into a covenant with God to work for the small man, the small woman and the child on the streets and the voiceless people who live in the shadows of life. My aspiration to become the governor of Rivers state is all about you and I promise you that I will never give up on you or forget you,” he assured them wholeheartedly.

In a related development, distinguished Rivers State legal luminary and the top contender for
the Rivers State All Progressives Congress, APC, 2019 Governorship
ticket, has thrown his weight solidly behind President Muhammadu
Buhari’s preference and endorsement of direct primaries in the APC Party primaries to elect candidates to fly the party’s flag in the 2019 general elections, even as he has declared that his aspiration to become the next governor of Rivers State is to improve the living
standards of Rivers people and give expression to the ordinary and
voiceless Rivers man woman and child who lives in the shadows of life and has been neglected by governments for so long.

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs made these disclosures, while fielding
questions with newsmen after concluding a hugely successful rally, attended by thousands of his supporters and APC party faithful, who had joined him in a triumphant march across major streets in Port
Harcourt and besieged his campaign office in droves, to hear the well loved philanthropist and renowned business mogul formally declare his intention to contest for the Rivers state governorship ticket under the All Progressives Congress, APC before his people at home.

Justifying his reasons for supporting the use of Direct Primaries by Rivers State APC to select candidates to fly the party’s flag in all elective positions come 2019, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs averred that not only has the method been upheld by the President and national leadership of the party, but it will equally give the people the
opportunity to be directly involved in the process of electing those
to represent them at all levels of governance.

He said; “The national leadership of the party has been preaching
Direct Primaries. The President of this country, who is the embodiment of what this change that the APC represents is speaking about Direct Primaries. And why does the President insist on Direct Primaries? It is because he wants to return power to the people. He wants to ensure that it is the peoples choice that gets to represent them at their political parties, and also at their state governments. At the local
government and at the Federal government. And everybody who is in the APC and believes in the change mantra of the APC and Mr. President must align with the President to give power back to the people.

“So it is not about me wanting Direct Primaries. It is about the
President wanting Direct primaries and it is about me understanding
the reason why Direct Primaries is good for all of us. There is no way
that if i want all of us to discontinue with this traitorous experience that our people have always had with their leaders, that i will not stand for Direct primaries. Direct Primaries gives the power back to you. It gives the power back to the man and the woman on the street and to the APC members who cannot leave the wards to the APC person who is in the market. Direct primaries brings the process right to their domain and there is no way we shouldn’t support that. So I
support the President’s desire to change this country wholeheartedly, without limitations and without any fear,” he stated emphatically.