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Chief Okoi Obono-Obla
By Akpan David, Calabar
A former presidential aide, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has called for an early state congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in order to effect changes in the party executive committee.
He also called on Cross River State Governor Bassey Otu to work towards replacing the Alphonsus Eba-led APC executive committee and install his own men.
He made the call in a statement where he stressed the need for a Mid-Term APC State Congress soon.
He has alleged that Eba-led APC exco were not originally to occupy the positions but had supplanted people who actually fought from the trenches in the the opposition from 1999 to 2015 when the present officials were all in the then ruling PDP in the state.
It would be recalled that when former governor Ben Ayade defected from PDP on 20 May 2022, he left with loyalists who automatically took over key offices in the formerly beleaguered party to the detriment of those who toiled to keep the party afloat. Ever since there has been agitation and outcry of marginalisation and domination by influx of ‘new joiners’ over the redundant ‘old timers’.
Obono-Obla asserted that “It is now the time to reverse the injustice done by APC officials who supplanted party men who fought for the APC in its struggling days.
“It is the time to move from peseudo progressivism, dictatorship, and garrison democracy characterized during the currency of the present State EXCO since 2022 by respect for the rule of law, the Party Constitution, Rules, Regulations, and internal democracy.”
He alleged that: “The ruling APC is undoubtedly in a state of miasma, anomie, and rudderless.
“There is the need urgently to rejig and revamp the Party in tune with the People First Agenda of Senator Bassey Edet Otu,” he said.
Obono-Obla reminded that the present State Executive Committee, Local Government Executive and Ward Executive Committee of the party are “left over of the immediate past regime who crossed over from the PDP after a fratricide and internecine political warfare that ravaged the PDP chapter in the State from 2016 to 2021.”
He stated that The APC Constitution 2022 makes provision for a mid-term Congress, adding that the present party exco took over in 2022 and should be replaced.
“It is strategic for Gov Otu to replace the present people with his own to save himself from sabotage by remnants of the old regime.
Quoting the party constitution, he said that Article 2 1.5 provides that the National Convention of the Party shall be held every two years although no such provision exists at the state level but that such power could be implied.
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