Cross River gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prince Bassey Otu, has crossed a significant hurdle in his quest to become governor of the state, after successfully winning over fellow contestant, Chris Agara, with the latter congratulating Otu over his victory at the gubernatorial primary of the party and throwing support behind his candidature.
Late Tuesday evening, June 14, 2023, Agara in a letter addressed to Otu, wrote that, “…on behalf of myself, campaign organisation, teeming supporters and well wishers to congratulate you on your emergence as the governorship candidate of our great party, APC, from the recently concluded party primaries which I also participated as an aspirant.”
He went on to state that, “going forward, we will like to assure you of our support and cooperation towards ensuring your success and that of the party accordingly.”
Sources inside Otu’s campaign organization informed www.calitown.com that Agara was contacted by some well meaning members of the APC, and sold the idea of working with Otu to ensure victory for the APC. Fingered as arrowheads of this consultation were a certain Chief Higgins and former presidential aide, Florence Ita-Giwa, with even published pictures on the internet emerging after the consultation. “Agara has considerable business interests to protect in Cross River State. If he doesn’t make peace and support Otu, if Otu wins without his support, most of those businesses may never see the light of day.”
“It is beyond just business. Agara cannot walk the path of politics alone, he needs to build alliances and working with Otu is something he should effortlessly embrace. By any inch of it, Otu is a popular candidate with mass appeal that is way higher than Agara’s, if he doesn’t support Otu, he may be headed for political wilderness inside the APC, especially now that Ayade’s influence in the party is waning…it is more about his political survival than any ego”, another source who doesn’t want his name in print told us.
