…Says He Only Prevented Unauthorised Invasion Of Council Secretariat By PDP
By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The chairman and Mayor of Calabar Municipality Local Government Area of Cross River State, Chief Dr. Effefiong Eke, yesterday refuted allegations levelled against him that he chased a group of traditional rulers out of the council headquarters with security operatives on Wednesday.
The council chairman refuted the allegations while answering questions during a telephone conversation with our correspondent in Calabar yesterday.
Eke, who doubles as Mayor of Calabar Municipality, averred that he only denied the traditional rulers opportunity to host members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and stopped the opposition party from invading the council headquarters, given the fact that no formal request was made by the party to use the council premises for nay such gathering.
He said, “I foiled the attempt made by the PDP in the state to invade the council secretariat.
“It is unethical in a political period of this magnitude for an opposition party to make unapproved attempts to use the premises of the Calabar Municipal Council for their political activities without formal notification.
“Prior to the attempt, the opposition party had failed to notify nor get any approval from the council authority regarding their visitation to the council secretariat.
“In the eyes of the law, it is invasive and poses a security threat to the council leadership.”
He explained that even if the traditional rulers wanted to use their office, which is located at the council secretariat to receive the PDP governorship candidate, he would have been formerly notified prior to the day of their visit, instead of storming the council secretariat without any formal notification.
He added, “In any case, our royal father has his palace in town where the visitors should have been received. You and I know how politics is played in this state.
“This isn’t the first time that someone had been denied access into a government facility. The royal father is also my father, but you see those whom he bestowed the responsibility on did not do well.
“His aides ought to have gotten me informed on time and in a formal way either by a way of writing or prior to the arrival of the the PDP members whom the traditional rulers were playing host to.”
The mayor stated that his failure to allow the royal fathers opportunity to play host to the PDP in the council secretariat, which is governed by an All Porgressives Congress, APC, chairman was no calculated attempt to depose any monarch or any one in place of authority.
