by crossriverwatch admin
Newly berthed All Progressives Congress, APC in Cross River state has said it would be an act of injustice to deny the northern senatorial district of the state of taking a shot at the governorship of the state hence its decision to zone the position to area.
This statement is coming on heels of political permutations within the ranks of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to rotate the governorship of the state based on ‘the Calabar-Ogoja accord’.
The accord which is premised on provincial geo-political considerations, groups the people of the Central and Northern Senatorial districts as one [Ogoja] while the people of the Southern Senatorial district are also grouped as one [Calabar].
Based on this consideration, the end of the Senator Liyel Imoke administration signals the beginning of agitation for another governor from the Southern Senatorial District about eight years after their son Ex-Governor Donald Duke had occupied that office.
Imoke is from Abi local government area in the central senatorial district, a part of the old Ogoja province.
Already, there are agitations within the ruling PDP for the south to grab the coveted seat contrary to earlier consideration by the party’s leader in the state, Senator Imoke that his successor will emerge from the northern senatorial district.
But the APC shortly after its inaugural meeting in Calabar recently re-echoed the consideration for the northern senatorial district of the state to produce the next governor.
The party stated that it would be an act of injustice to deny the north the governorship slot having not occupied the seat since the inception of the present unbroken democratic dispensation.
Chieftains of the APC and Chairmen of the three major defunct parties in the merger, Mr. Hilliard Eta [ACN], Prince Terry Bisong [ANPP] and Hon. Mike Agbeh [CPC] told Journalists at a press briefing shortly after the meeting that the position of the APC to zone the governorship to the north was to further affirm the earlier resolve of their individual parties which have fused into the new party to zone the seat to that senatorial district.
Eta maintained that the APC does not believe in the Ogoja/ Calabar accord as held in some quarters which is whipped up to rotate the governorship of the state.
He said zoning the number one office to the north was a way of doing justice to the north that has been denied the seat since the inception of unbroken democratic governance in 1999.
Chairman of the defunct CPC, Hon. Agbeh said the APC leadership will guard against internal wrangling but will ensure that it sacrifice for the success of the party in the state.
On his part, the defunct ANPP Chairman, Prince Bisong said the days of the PDP ruler-ship of the state are over recalling that the opposition party had held sway in the governance of the state and has come back to take its place.
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