By Patrick Obia
Cross River State Political Network (CRISPON) has endorsed the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 general elections in the state, Sen. Bassey Otu.
CRISPON, a non-governmental social-political organization that has been in existence for eleven years in the state made the endorsement in the inauguration of team coordinators as well as unveiling of its State Secretariat in Calabar.
Sen. Prince Otu while addressing supporters and unveiling the Secretariat thanked the Network for such a gesture for his course and the APC. He urged: “we want every one of you to go and work very hard and make sure that at the end of the day we have APC all through from top to bottom. I want to let you know I never disappointed you when I didn’t even have a budget but now that I have a budget, I will not disappoint.”
Speaking with Journalists, the Director-General of CRISPON, Dr. Michael Abuo said the non-social-political organization is involved in providing a platform for young people to be mentored in practical leadership skills as well as advocating for issues that are related to the good of Cross River State.
He said the Network’s choice to drum up support for Otu is for natural justice and the zoning basis.
“For us to gather together today is because we believe in the personality and person of Sen. Prince Otu who has been a House of reps member, as a senator and has lived up to expectations. We are also here following the part of natural justice; we believe the governorship position should alternate based on the zoning arrangement which has been kept.
“Cross River State Political Network is an organization that has membership both offline and online; our online membership is over 32,000 while our offline membership is over 10,000 and it is open to members of all political parties but since it is a democratic organization, what we do is during the period of elections we look at a candidate on a case-by-case basis and our coordinators vote as to who we should support. For the governorship position, we have aligned with Bassey Otu because it is the popular will of our coordinators; it is not focused on a particular organization but rather, focused on the candidate.”
He charged those inaugurated to take the crusade to their various communities and enlighten dwellers on why they should support Mr. Bassey, calling on Cross Riverians to vote for candidates not parties in the 2023 general elections.
Coordinators were drawn from Calabar Municipal, Odukpani, Bakassi, Akpabuyo, Calabar South, Akamkpa, and Biase Local Government Areas.
