Pressure Mounts On PDP To Cancel Ward Congresses In Cross River

By Laureta Akpan

Fresh indications emerged on Thursday that pressure is being mounted on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) to cancel the results of ward congresses held in Cross River last week Saturday.

Sources confirmed that the intensity of the crisis in Cross River apparently informed the pressure being mounted by officials of the state on the PDP.

Tribune reports that Governor Liyel Imoke, Honorable Owan Enoh, Bassey Ewa and the state chairman, Ntufam John Okon, had, at different times, visited the national secretariat in Abuja during the week.

A source told Tribune that because some people who are not favored by the establishment in the state had the upper hand in the last congresses, the governor is lobbying for the cancellation of the results, to pave way for total sweep of the process.

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The paper quoted a source as saying “the pressure is coming particularly from those who lost out in the congress. They have tried to impress it on the party leadership and the NWC that only a cancellation would be acceptable.

“For the past three days, the leadership has come under intense lobby that a fresh congress should be conducted, by cancelling results already submitted by the various electoral panels. In fact, the lobby has been taken to the Presidency.

“But the NWC has told the lobbyists that they stand by the results returned by their electoral panels. Two petitions came from Cross River State but the appeal panel dismissed them. The petitioners were told to accept the report of the electoral panel. There are also issues from Enugu, Anambra and Benue.”

This may have led to why the party has now decided to suspend some members in the state, including Ndoma Egba and Jedy Agba, alleging that they manipulated the ward congresses.

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