By Ebriku John Friday
…As Ayade wants end to lines of division
The State chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Cross River State, Alphonsus Ogar Eba Esq, has said, the part has not zoned the governorship position, saying such decision will be taken by the party’s caucus members.
Eba stated this during a press conference held at the party’s secretariat in Calabar on Monday, where he congratulated the APC for a successful national convention, which led to the emergence of former Commissioner for Health, Dr Betta Edu as the National Women Leader and one of its state executive members, Elder Edet Asia as Special Leader, South-South zone.
He said a final position has not been taken by the party as this will be done by the caucuses of the party very soon.
He said the various caucuses of the party will be set up right from the local government level, so as to help the party present the best candidates for all elective positions in the state.
He said though the governor promised to zone the governorship to the south, he remains a democrat and not an autocrat and so the expression of an opinion just as I expressed mine in the past does not represent the final position of the party.
He explained that “The party has not zoned the governorship position of the party and that decision will be taken in a proper caucus of the state executive.
“The constitution of the party spells out those who are members of the caucus, the beauty of it is that the governor is one of the persons that is going to sit in that caucus meeting, as state chairman I will sit there, former national assembly members, local government chairmen, some recognised officers will be part of it as stated in Article 9 of the party”, he said.
Meanwhile, Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, has charged the State Chapter of the party to eradicate lines of division within the party.
The governor gave the charge through the State Chairman of the party, Alphonsus Eba, while flagging off the second phase of membership drive of the party, which is called “political evangelism.”
The party chairman said the governor wants an end to the division between the Old and new APC in the state and he does not want the people who built the APC house to feel side-lined.
The party chairman said the governor wants the party to “put an end to anything called old and new, and everybody in the APC that is involved in administration from the polling unit structure must also eradicate this line of division.
“We must not give room to members of this party who built the house before some of us came to live in to feel side-lined.
“So in whatever we do, there must be proper balance, equity, fairness and so every member of this party whether you joined the party before 2014 or you joined on May 20, 2021 we are all on equal base.
“We all have equal rights based on the waiver that has been given by the national office. Everybody is eligible to contest so the task for you is to return back to your unit and people and sell yourself”, he said.
On the second phase of the membership drive, the party chairman said the success recorded during the first phase, where over one million people were registered, necessitated the need for the second phase and another one million people are being targeted.
He said “When we came on board we told our people that our mission was political evangelism. The first phase of that evangelical mission has recorded huge successes.
“The benefit of that was that the number of registered members in the APC today has increased tremendously.
“In fact I was alerted that the various chapter chairmen ran short of registration materials and the party took it upon themselves to again go and procure materials that will be able to register another one million people into our party.
“Today we are happy to say that we have started another phase of political evangelism.
“It is coming at a time where we expect all members of the party, which are the one million members we have, to be commissioned as political evangelists”, he said.
He said all candidates seeking to fly the party’s flag must go to their units and win souls for the party, as that is the partnership the party wants from them.
Some of the state executive members present include, Deputy Chairman Prince Eka Williams, Secretary Barr Mensah Bassey, Publicity Secretary Mr Erasmus Ekpang amongst others.
