by Our Editor
The battle as to who becomes the next occupant of Peregrino House, Calabar, starting from May 29, 2015 is gradually becoming murky as the man who currently dictates the direction of political tides and his inner political arrow-heads are daily rolling out new tricks and intrigues from their inexhaustible bag of political concoction to choose a governor for the people of Cross River State.
CrossRiverWatch reliably gathered that the Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, held a secret but crucial meeting with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chapter Chairmen and the Local Governments Caucus Chairmen of the 18 Local Government Councils in the state Friday night to the early hours of Saturday.
A source who is one of Governor Imoke’s trusted political allies and who was also part of the meeting, when contacted, refused to give any useful information as to what was the agenda of the nocturnal meeting.
When, CrossRiverWatch further pressed him for comments, he told us that the meeting was simply the governor’s reassurance to the people of the Northern Senatorial District of the State that the next governor of the state will come from the area.
He added that the governor asked the people of Cross River North not to choose the next governor based on filial connections but on the basis of competence and loyalty to the ruling party.
He however could not tell CrossRiverWatch why it will take the governor a sleepless night of more than eight hours to inform a few selected persons again that the next governor will come from the north, coupled with the stark reality that the attempt by the Chairman of the northern PDP Caucus, Chief Linus Okom (Ada Bekwarra), to screen down the number of aspirants vying for the post of governorship from the 22 to a manageable number has been frustrated by the powers that be.
Competent sources informed CrossRiverWatch that the initial plan to scale down the number of aspirants was actually the brain child of the governor, to see if some of the candidates whom the governor dread to take over from him in 2015 are cut short in their ambitions at that level and by their own people, shifting the blame to the people, especially as the Chairman of the caucus is said to be an in-law to one of the strong contenders to the number one political seat in the state.
CrossRiverWatch also gathered that the idea of tricking the Chairman to hold the screening at that time was because this aspirant, whose interest in the number one political position in the state is unsettling the power brokers, was out of the state and country, and it was an appropriate time according to our source to plot the coup against him, but that the CrossRiverWatch story which pre-empted what was to be the outcome of the screening, coupled with the strings which the aspirant pulled from above, the exercise was summarily cancelled and the three hundred thousand (N300,000.00) Naira screening fee which each aspirant was made to pay refunded.
We equally learnt that the idea of screening out some aspirants has been permanently put to the cooler because the antics of the powers that be have been known to those who were to be screened out, and that the governor does not seems to be sure of the loyalty of the caucus Chairman again.
When contacted the Chairman, Chief Linus Okom (Ada Bekwara) was not ready to comment and seemed very hostile to our reporter.
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