A former member of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Cletus Obun, has warned the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, against wrong choice of candidates ahead of the National Assembly elections in the state.
Obun, a foundation member and former chairman of the party in the state said in a television interview monitored in Port Harcourt, that the warning became necessary to avoid protest votes from the voting public.
Saying that it was necessary for the state governor, Senator Bassey Otu, who is the leader of the party in the state, as well as the newly elected party leaders to avoid playing politics during the conduct of the primaries from where candidates for the election would emerge.
He spoke particularly about expectations in the northern part of the state, saying signals had already emerged that the current senator for the northern senatorial district, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbo, was in a better place to fly the party’s flag, because of his strength, popularity, performance and relevance.
He however praised the governor for what he called his unbiased approach in handling the just concluded congresses and said the quality of officials that emerged from the process showed that the people’s choices were allowed to win. He urged
He said people like Jarigbe joined the APC not too long ago, but that he got there as an asset that should not be toyed with. “He has high pedigree and because of that, you will expect that he will be disrespectful and come with an ego, but he is a cool-headed young man who came on board and agreed and work with the governor.
“Of course, coming from a senatorial district that also had the former governor, Prof Ben Ayade, you will agree that clearly, there will be mutual respectability on both sides.” He said Jarigbe stood a better chance to win the party’s ticket than Ayade, even though the latter had been a two-term governor and also hailed from the same zone.
Saying that imposition of candidates could back-fire and cost the party a lot, Obun said Cross River north would be a boiling point in the state. He recalled that it was in that same zone that a sitting governor ran an election but lost to someone whom the people considered to be of more value.
“That is the banana peel that is waiting for those who think they can impose. I keep referring to Cross River North because that is our boiling point where a governor contested and lost an election to the present incumbent in the Senate, after two tenures as governor.
“What that means to us is that, that is a testing ground and we lost all the elections in the National Assembly in that senatorial district on account of Jarigbe and others who were with him.
“Senator Ayada who himself was a senator and became governor from the Senate contested that same election. We are going back to that same banana peel now. With Jarigbe moving into APC, what that means is that one person (between Ayade and Jarigbe) must go down.
“Whet that means is that Cross River North is going to be about referendum, about what have you done before? None of them is new to the system. That is to so say that, you have been house of assembly member, you have been senator what is your pedigree and then you, you have been senator, a governor what is your pedigree what do you have to show?
He said the APC may not have issues in the central and southern part of the state, but noted that the north could become the party’s albatross if care was not taken in the choice of candidates.
