Today’s town hall meeting in Cross River North Senatorial District by the PDP’s Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, who represents the district in the Senate, all but confirmed rumours carried by the winds, all week, that Peter Akpanke, who represents Obudu/Bekwarra/Obanliku Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives on the platform of the PDP, has broken ranks with the PDP and is set to join the APC.
While Jarigbe was welcomed by a mammoth gathering of PDP faithfuls in Obudu and Obanliku, Akpanke’s LGA of origin, in Akpanke’s absence, what appears to be a political masterstroke and stunner dropped when former Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Zana Akpagu, was introduced at the venue and acknowledged with a thunderous ovation by the thickly gathered crowd.
Political sources on the ground, who pleased anonymity, informed www.calitown.com that Akpagu’s introduction at the venue and the attendant thunderous ovation was a decisively firm acceptance of his person as the new man from the PDP to lock horns with Akpanke in the next elections to the House of Representatives, should Akpanke get APC’s nod or any other person the party presents.
We also gathered that Akpanke stayed back in Abuja to perfect his defection formalities to the APC, with tension heightening in the APC that the likes of former Chief of Staff to immediate past Cross River State governor, Martin Orim, who was supposedly pencilled down for the position by the party, will be nudged aside for Akpanke to be the APC’s flag bearer as he works to seek a second term in the House of Reps. Akpanke was sighted in the company of CRS deputy governor, Peter Odey, CRS APC Chairman, Alphonsus Eba and Chief of Staff to the CRS governor, Emmanuel Ironbar, in a circulated picture online.
Jarigbe at the event, alluded to Akpanke’s imminent departure from the PDP, by saying that: “Look around your communities, if the House of Reps member you sent with me has not done anything, please look elsewhere, we are not talking about party here, you might not have to look very far, we will provide someone that you will look at.”
Who is Zana Akpagu?
Zana Akpagu, we can reliably reveal is the “someone”, Jarigbe is referring to, after Akpagu reportedly left the APC on whose platform he was denied a senatorial nomination by the party, to join the PDP. He is 68 years old, a Professor of Language and the 10th substantive vice-chancellor of the University of Calabar.
Immediate Political Storm
The political developments in Cross River North in the last 72 hours appear to have sent the political pressure group, the Northern Cross River Coalition, NORTHCCO, into political reverse gear, postponing till further notice, a meeting already planned for next week in Calabar.
In Bekwarra LGA, the home of NORTHCCO’s Central Working Committee Chairman, Legor Idagbor, Jarigbe crossed swords with Idagbor, proclaiming for all to hear that: ““Your Bekwarra son that you fought for betrayed you, the opportunity to replace him will come. I don’t need to convince anybody here to stay or go because I know nobody here is defecting to the other party, rather we will be receiving more persons from the other party today.” Idagbor was not immediately available for comments at press time when we tried to reach him.
