By Ogar Monday
Claim: The APC Women Leader, Dr. Betta in a recent interview, claimed that the Labour Party has no governorship candidate in Cross River State, and that her party, the APC had won all House Representatives seat in the State except in the Northern Senatorial District.
Verdict: Misleading. The Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the election is Mr. Ogar Osim. Also, the APC failed to win the Calabar Municipality/Odukpani seat, which was won by Bassey Akiba of the Labour Party.
Full Text
A former commissioner of health in Cross River state and the current National Women Leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, in a recent interview on Arise TV, made various claims regarding the recent elections. Speaking about the national parliamentary elections, Ms. Edu said:
“I want to put this to the fore that the House of Representative seats were won by APC except that of the Northern part of the state. So, APC won in the central, APC won in the south, and we only lost in the Northern part of the state.”
On the state governorship elections, she said:
“The Labour Party won [the presidential election in the state], APC came close second, and then PDP came far third. Going into the next election, Labour Party doesn’t have a candidate.” Ms Betta further added that “for PDP, we are not worried about them. They are not a threat to us. We are discussing with them and working hand in hand with them because they do not even have a governorship candidate. They will work with us in APC.”
Verification
In verifying the claim that the APC swept all the House of Representatives seats in the Central and Southern part of the State, CrossRiverWatch looked through the list of members-elect of the House of Representatives shared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
On the list published by INEC, of the eight seats, PDP won the two available slots in the Northern Senatorial District. APC won all three available seats in the Central Senatorial District, while the APC took two seats and LP one seat in the Southern Senatorial District.
Under the column for Cross River State and number 81 on the overall list, Akiba Bassey Ekpenyong of the Labour Party is listed as the winner of the Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Representative Seat.
Does The Labour Party Have A Governorship Candidate In Cross River?
While INEC is yet upload a comprehensive list of governorship candidates, information available from credible media houses such as Vanguard, Daily Post show that Mr. Ogar Osim is the Labour Party’s candidate for the governorship seat in the State alongside Ekpezu Obu as his running mate.
In fact, following claims made by the APC in Cross River that the party was working hand-in-gloves with the Labour Party, the State Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Dr. Lekan Ofem denied the existence of such arrangement, insisting that the party “has a Governorship candidate in the person of Patriarch Ogar Osim who is very much in the race to Victory.”
Conclusion
Claims by Dr. Betta Edu that the APC had won all the available House of Representatives seats in the Central and Southern part of Cross River State in last months elections are misleading, as the party lost the Calabar Municipality/Odukpani seat to Bassey Akiba of LP.
Also, the claim that the Labour Party has no governorship candidate in this Saturday’s polls is false, as Mr. Ogar Osim is flying the LP’s flag in the elections.
The researcher produced this explainer per the DUBAWA 2023 Kwame KariKari Fellowship, in partnership with CrossRiverWatch, to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.