By Sylvia Etta
In a rare show of solidarity and sportsmanship, over twenty of the aspirants who lost out in the battle for the Cross River state PDP governorship ticket to Senator Ben Ayade met with him yesterday at a dinner to pledge their support and promised to work for the success of the party at all levels.
The dinner which held at the Presidential Lodge in Calabar CrossRiverWatch learnt was chaired by the state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke who thanked the aspirants for honoring the invitation to the dinner and for their show of solidarity for Ayade and the party.
A source who was at the dinner told CrossRiverWatch that “Imoke appealed to the aspirants to put the grievances from the party primaries behind them and work to ensure that Cross River delivers 100 percent for the party.”
Senator Ben Ayade in his reaction to the dinner told CrossRiverWatch that: “I simply wanted to demonstrate that we are indeed a family. That the entire PDP in Cross River State is so united that there was no defection. Despite the number of candidates, over 20 like you know, everybody was in attendance and we had a successful dinner, everybody pledged to work and deliver for PDP at all levels. We are speaking with one voice as you can see. Cross River has a culture as a civilized polished people, so we are moving on from here to the field to begin work and ensure victory for the party at all levels.”
Prince Jedy Agba is his reaction also told CrossRiverWatch that “The primaries have been won and lost and we have moved on. The next phase now is to see how we can collectively work to ensure the success of our party at all levels in next months’ election.”
Ntufam Fidelis Ugbo was however conspicuously absent from the dinner further fueling speculations that he is in discussions with Labour Party to become their governorship candidate. But Senator Ayade maintained that he has reached out to Ugbo and he was quite optimistic that Ugbo will not defect.