While Senate Leader and senator representing the Cross River Central Senatorial District in Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber, Victor Ndoma-Egba, may have alluded to problems within the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River State, party sources have informed www.calitown.com that an enlarged PDP meeting held at Joranny Hotel, Asari Eso, Calabar, late Thursday evening, has swiftly moved to counter Ndoma-Egba’s widely reported views, passing instead a vote of confidence on the leadership of the party and that of state governor, Liyel Imoke.
The meeting which lasted for more than two hours and had the state party executive, the 18 council chairmen, chairmen of the three senatorial caucuses, among others in attendance, frowned at the position of Ndoma-Egba and instead maintained that the PDP in CRS was one indivisible family whose differences have been positively contained. Those at the meeting are said to have maintained that the Senate Leader ought to have conclusively explored the party’s internal working machinery before going to the press, submitting further that what he was alluding to were issues that have since been resolved.
However, sources within Ndoma-Egba’s camp have risen in defence of him, pointing out that with the Senate Leader’s experience garnered over a period of time, he cannot falter or mince words in identifying what problems confront the PDP in CRS. “Those who deny that there’s a problem within the party can convince anyone that the sun does not rise from the East”, as one of them put it. The meeting also harped on the need for the party’s Elders’ Forum to play a critical role in ensuring that the zoning arrangements for all political positions were pursued to the latter.
On the recent collection of permanent voters’ card, the meeting expressed shock that only 750, 000 voter’s cards were collected while a whooping 250, 000 cards are still in the Independent Electoral Commission’s possession, waiting to be collected. Particularly, those at the meeting wondered why Calabar Municipality and Calabar South responded poorly to the exercise, which may result in the drop in CR’s voting strength from more than 1.4 million to less than one million.
While a large number of aspirants have indicated interest in running for the office of governor, CRS, the meeting may have directed the party’s elders to begin the process of pruning down the number of aspirants so that it will in no time be able to throw its weight behind one candidate, just like a good number of those holding political appointments are expected to turn in their resignations before the end of next week.
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