By Godwin Ajom
A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Francis Effiom, alongside his supporters at Ward 8, Calabar Municipal Local Government Area, have decamped to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
CrossRiverWatch observed that among those who defected with the PDP chieftain, is the Ward 8 Chairman, Mr. Bernard Iso, who posited their move is to add value to the Governor Bassey Otu’s administration than sapping the administration.
“This decision is predicated on what is so obvious.The Governor of Cross River State Prince Bassey Otu has shown capacity and willingness to touch the lives of the people. I am talking about my own ward ward 8, Ikot Ansa, Calabar Municipal Local Government Council.
“Within the first year that Senator Bassey Otu became a Governor, he had fixed two major roads in my community. One is the road leading to the highway through zone 6 to the NPC Depot, to the port side via the industrial Park where you have the bulk of the tank farms in Calabar.
“That road used to be almost inaccessible, until Prince Bassey Edet Otu became Governor. Today if you drive through that road, it has become a dual carriage way from Murtala Mohammed Highway to the Calabar River where it terminates.
“On the Eastern flank of our community, the Ndidem Usang Iso Bolivat, where the road began, starting from our community. The first phase of the road, Prince Bassey Edet Otu, has just commissioned that road, despite spending only one year in office. Our local community road at Asim Ita Street that had been abandoned for some decades, Prince Bassey Edet Otu has fixed it.
“At that point what else can we do ? Even though we refused to allow him to win in our ward in the last elections? But we in the PDP sat down and said, it will be unfair for us not to give him the votes in the subsequent elections, that is what has informed our decision to move en masse from the PDP to APC.
“We have not come to contest the local offices with our brothers who had been on ground all this while. We are only coming to add value, use our relationship and connections with people we know at the state and national level to attract better things to our community and ward. We are not coming to struggle with ward structure. No, that is not what we are looking for.”
While advising supporters who are yet to make up their minds to quit the PDP for their new party, Effiom said, “If we who are the pillars of the PDP up to the ward leader, Ntufam Bernard Iso, myself, the ward chairman of PDP Francis Asi, the entire ward structure of PDP has moved today into the APC, every other person should just flow inside.”
