Ogoja stood still for several hours yesterday as the Northern Senatorial district caucus of the PDP had an interactive session with CR gubernatorial aspirants of the party from the North of the state. It was an opportunity, www.calitown.com learnt, for the aspirants to tacitly sell their individual candidatures to the caucus and a large gathering of party faithfuls who had besieged the Ogoja local council grounds, venue of the engagement.
Present were 17 aspirants, while Goddy Agba, was excused for reasons that were not ascertained at press time. Immediate past CR cabinet members, Legor Idagbo, Patrick Ugbe, Peter Oti, Peter Ojie, Gerald Adah, Speaker of the CRS House of Assembly, Larry Odey, Julius Okputu, Emmanuel Ubi, among others, added fanfare to the occasion with hordes of supporters who danced and sang their praises to the high heavens.
Visibly absent was Catholic priest, Francis Eworo, but supporters of the priest were there in full force singing and dancing with bold banners that had his name inscribed on them.
The candidates each had 20 minutes to serve the caucus and audience a blueprint for governing CRS. Speaker after speaker gave snippets of what they intend to do, receiving resounding applause in the end.
While speaking with journalists at the venue, one-time Works Commissioner in the state, Julius Okputu, commended state governor, Liyel Imoke “for midwiving a political process that clearly affords the electorates and the electoral college a look in on those aspiring to govern Cross River state”. Gerald Adah on his part informed www.calitown.com that the exercise was a good one and all the aspirants “are going back to await the outcome”.
One political watcher in Ogoja is of the opinion that the exercise “is timely and represents a visible break away from the practice in the past where Cross Riverians never had the opportunity of assessing at close range, those who aspire to lead us. This exercise should be able to show us not just who is ready to lead us, but also who has something to offer our state at this critical time”, he concluded.
