Sources inside the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have reliably informed www.calitown.com that Gov. Imoke’s Chief of Staff, Alex Egbona, will have to contend with formidable opposition within the PDP ‘family’ if he hopes to realise his ambition to represent Yakurr/Abi Federal Constituency in Nigeria’s House of Representatives.
Specifically, a career diplomat, Ambassador Mark Egbe, touted to have received Imoke’s nod, is being lined up to take the shine off Egbona. Egbe was recently at the party’s secretariat to intimate the party of his decision to join the race, submitted what sources say are his credentials as well as a cheque for N2 million to the party as a gift. Spotted with Egbe were frontline female politician, Ekama Awara, DG-RUDA, Eko Atu and major CRS contractor, Philip Efem, among others.
Egbona’s camp is said to be taking in events with caution and believes that “it will go down to the amount of work that has been done back in Yakurr and Abi by whoever wants to go to the House of Representatives and not who can carry the heaviest entourage around”, as one source told www.calitown.com. The seat in contention, presently occupied by former Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Bassey Ewa, is being tipped “to go to Abi LGA after representatives of Yakurr extraction complete 16 years there. It is now our turn to send someone there and that is what we will do with the support of our Yakurr brothers and sisters”, as an Abi indigene put it.
To brace up to the formidable candidature of Egbe, Egbona is said to be working at tightening his political grip on Yakurr. His acolytes are being financially empowered to give the impression that he is most suited for the position. During the last Easter celebration, he is said to have doled out fat sums of cash as well as gifts to supporters in both Yakurr and Abi, to drive home his desire to go to Abuja Three Arms zone. The days ahead promise to be “politically interesting”, as one political watcher put it.
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Only in the hands of Chief Alex Egbona, shall we entrust our Yakurr/Abi Federal Constituency on. Chief Alex have serve not just the governor, but in particular, the state not to be given the chance at the federal level. The constituency need a grassroot politician in the like of him.
Who else? if not Alex Egbona