While Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, has severally informed that he will put his weight behind a gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the Southern Senatorial District of the state, critical stakeholders of the APC, from CR Central Senatorial District have kicked against the governor’s position, www.calitown.com can reveal.
At a critical stakeholders meeting of APC members from the Central Senatorial District held in Ikom, this Saturday, March 5, 2022, stakeholders insisted that rather than exclusively work at producing and limiting the gubernatorial candidate of the APC to CR South, the party should work at “opening up of the political space in the party at the state level for the overall interest of the party in order to provide for the credible emergence of candidates that will be generally acceptable to the people.” The stakeholders further insisted that “the emphasis should be on a winning strategy for the party and not a zoning strategy.”
John Owan Enoh, a former senator, in the company of Usani Uguru Usani, former Niger Delta Affairs minister and businessman, Chris Agara, informed the large gathering that “while strategic meetings of the CR APC members from CR North have taken place in Legor Idagbo’s house and members from the South meeting in Ivara Esu’s house, members in the Central have never met to politically strategize, the reason this meeting was called.”
Sources within the APC informed www.calitown.com that certain forces within the party in the state, had attempted to stop the meeting, having sold the governor the story that one of either Usani, Enoh or Agara, was going to use the event to declare his intention to run for governor. Jitters too appear to have been sent down the spine of some party officials when it was becoming clear that an Owan, Usani and Agara alliance, was surely going to scuttle the governor’s ambition of anointing a successor from the South of CR.
The meeting in Ikom, threw up a nine point document that the stakeholders say will be handed over to the governor. See the nine points below.
THE CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT DECLARATION IN IKOM ON THE 5TH OF MARCH, 2022
1. That the forum resolved to pledge its support for President Mohammadu Buhari (GCFR)’s Government and commend the giant strides recorded in all the sectors of the nation’s economy.
2. The forum appreciated His Excellency Ben. Ayade for his defection into the party and the Value it has brought while also acknowledging his leadership of the State.
3. The forum congratulated the state chairman of the APC, Barr. Alphonsus Ogar and members of the state executive committee of the APC for their emergence and recent inauguration. It calls on the party leadership to please lead with fairness and inclusiveness for all party men and women irrespective of Senatorial District.
4. The Central Senatorial District remains the most competitive senatorial district within the politics of APC in Cross River State therefore, managing it to reap the maximum benefit of this quality must be guided jealously.
5. The forum calls for the opening up of the political space in the party at the state level for the overall interest of the party in order to provide for the credible emergence of candidates that will be generally acceptable to the people. Therefore, the emphasis should be on a winning strategy for the party and not a zoning strategy.
6. The forum notes that the Central Senatorial District is the only zone in the state that has not witnessed any wave of defections out of it since the governor’s entry into the APC unlike the Southern and Northern Senatorial districts. This is largely as a result of the quality of political leadership and followership as well as the strength of the party in the District, therefore the leadership of the party is called upon to do everything to support the zone.
7. The experience coming out of the recent bye-elections that took place in Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency and Akpabuyo State constituency with PDP winning the two local governments of Akpabuyo and Ogoja and the APC winning one, Yala, should not be taken for granted as what this suggests going forward into the party primaries and the 2023 general elections is that the party must spare nothing to be competitive in the choice of its candidates for every elective office.
8. The Governor of Cross River State and leader of our party, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade has the greatest stake in retaining Cross River State as an APC state come 2023; together with Governor, the Central Senatorial District as the most competitive senatorial district with leaders that have made the greatest sacrifices for the survival of the party since its inception, the senatorial district has the responsibility to ensure that the party comes out victorious in the fourth coming elections.
9. The forum agreed to lead a delegation to the Governor and leader of the party to state the position of the zone.