There are veiled moves, sources within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River State say, to prop up and present a certain Francis Agantem Eworo, as the gubernatorial candidate of the party in the 2015 polls, calitown.com can reveal.
Eworo, a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Ogoja, known to be widely embraced by Gov. Liyel Imoke and his household, one source said “is the masked candidate that will be unveiled at the appropriate time and not all the people who have been rumoured to have visited President Jonathan to declare their intention to run for governor of Cross River State”.
When calitown.com sought to know from the sources why Eworo’s name has cropped up and why now, we were boldly told that “the man is a team player, a philanthropist, quite young, is poised to come and wipe away the political stereotypes that have stood between this state and the realization of her true potentials”.
Pointed to the fact that outside Eworo’s membership of the seven-man panel constituted by former state Chief Judge, Dorothy Iyamba-Idem to probe allegations of gross misconduct levelled against one time deputy governor, late John Okpa, he clearly lacks political experience, in plain language the sources were of the opinion that “if you say he lacks political experience, does he also lack political exposure? What you refer to as political experience is just political opportunity and if his own political opportunity or experience starts from the position of governor, is there anything wrong?”.
Apart from his closeness to Imoke, calitown.com was also informed that the widely travelled priest who we were unable to ascertain his political status within the party, at the time of going to press, has been behind several political decisions taken in the North of the state. Some of those decisions have put him on a collision course with contending forces. A case in point was the widely publicized slapping of the Catholic priest and his unconfirmed detention by the police at the instance of an unnamed political aide and crony of Imoke who felt the priest was politically meddlesome.
If this development sails through, Francis Eworo will be following in the steps of the late Moses Orshiro Adasu, a Catholic priest, elected governor of Benue State on January 2, 1992.
Nobody has ever slapped Rev Fr Francis Eworo. Pls get your facts on this right.