By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
Cross River State Commissioner for Rural Transportation, Mr. Edem Okokon Effiom, have chastised some key stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Cross River Central senatorial district for their failure to use their structures to secure victory for the party in the just concluded February 26 Akpabuyo state constituency bye-election.
Effiom apportioned the blame while doing a post-mortem of the reasons behind APC’s loss of the constituency to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Cautioning aggrieved party stakeholders on the dangers of taking irrational decision when they were angry, especially now that the arrangement for the 2023 general elections was in top gear, the former secretary of Akpabuyo Local Government Area called on all Cross-Riverians, home and abroad, to wipe out the erroneous belief that because the APC lost the state constituency bye-elections in Akpabuyo, the party may not win governorship election should the seat of governor be zone to the South.
Effiom stated that inordinate ambitions of some party men was thwarted by Governor Ayade’s pronouncement that the APC has zoned it’s governorship position to Cross River South senatorial district ahead of the 2023 general election.
He said that singular pronouncement shattered the stakeholders who doesn’t want the seat of governor to rotate to South, despite the fact that it’s the turn of the South to occupy the office of governor in 2023.
Effiom stressed that had chieftains of the APC like Senator John Owan Enor, Chief Barrister Chris Agara, and former Niger Delta Minister, Usani Usani, and their supporters worked vigorously for the party, the APC would have swept the polls at the just concluded February 26 bye-elections.
He said, “I am sure that the trio may have asked their teaming supporters not to vote for the APC in the bye-elections, otherwise how could APC suffer the loss it suffered in the bye-elections?
“Is it that these party stakeholders have no firm grip on their supporters to have instructed them to vote for the APC candidates or what?”
The two-time commissioner in the Prof. Ben Ayade’s administration attributed the failure of the three stakeholders of the Central senatorial district to work for the success of the APC during the bye-election to the governor’s pronouncement that his successor must come from the South, a development which might have angered the the likes of Usani, Agara and Senator Enor, to asked their supporters not to work for the APC.
The commissioner warned that the South should not be underrated or taken for granted despite the silenlence maintained by the people of the senatorial district, stressing that zoning formula often used by critical stakeholders determine where power should be shifted to should not be undermined.
