Tonye Cole’s Ambition Laces  with More Thorns

Tonye Cole, the co-founder of Sahara Energy, is a familiar name in the oil and gas business in Nigeria. But the shrewd businessman is not happy at the moment, as he seems to be having a challenge realizing one of his beautiful dreams.

Since 2018, he has been nursing the ambition of becoming the number one citizen of Rivers State. But it appears it may take a long while for the dream to come true.

The Kalabari-born top oil player had resigned from his appointment in 2018 to pursue his aspiration for the number one job in Rivers, as the anointed candidate of a former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi.

He has since been working hard to realise this dream, but his paths have been laced with more thorns than roses.

Though he got the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, after so much battle that would have swallowed him, he could not participate in the governorship election, as the Supreme Court nailed the coffin on his ambition.

The court had ruled that the name of the party should be expunged from the March 2, 2019 governorship election.

Though the foregoing may not be news anymore, it seems that history is about to repeat itself, as the court has, once again, thrown yet another spanner in his works.

A Federal High Court, last Tuesday in Port Harcourt, nullified all primary elections for all candidates of the party for the 2023 general election.

The suit instituted by one George Orlu and five other persons claimed they were unlawfully excluded from the Congresses conducted to elect delegates to the party primary. But a source disclosed that it is too early to conclude that Cole would not participate in the election, as his party members have vowed to appeal the judgment.

Political watchers in the state maintain, however, that getting the number one job in the state will not be a tea affair for him.