Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River State, Venatius Ikem, says he is not proud to be a state party chairman whose party lost the 2023 gubernatorial elections in the state.
Ikem who spoke at the party’s stakeholders meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel, Calabar, further attributed his party’s failure at thr polls to disunity and internal wranglings, stressing that the loss of key political positions in the state to the All Progressives Congress, APC, became a most unfortunate outcome for his party.
“We went into an election with a divided house, and a divided house can not stand. As a party, we’ve enjoyed unprecedented success and we took that for granted. This party remains strong at the grassroots. I take responsibility for the outcome of the last election and the way things turned out. We’re going back to rejig our party. We are going to put things in place. I am not proud to be a chairman who lost elections in the state, but I am proud that I come from a zone where we did a bit differently.”
He pleaded with stakeholders to look “…beyond personal interests” and see “challenges we need to overcome. We need to reason with one another. There’s still enthusiasm for the PDP and we will definitely bounce back.”
Senator representing Cross River North senatorial district, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, present at the meeting, commended stakeholders of the party for keeping faith with the party despite all odds, maintaining that the ruling All Progressives Congress was not infallible, stressing that the PDP must remain steadfast and also take advantage of APC’s mistakes.
“I appreciate the enthusiasm of members of the party. I want to encourage all of us, the only constant thing is change. The APC took over due to the mistakes that we made. I do not think that the APC is infallible. The APC will make the same mistakes and pave the way for us to take over,” he said.
Sandy Onor, the PDP governorship candidate in the 2023 election, urged members of the party to look beyond the party’s loss in last year’s governorship election, assuring them that that the party would certainly bounce back to its feet again.
