The stage appears set for a fierce battle against the Cross River State governor, Senator Bassey Otu, ahead of the 2027 gubernatorial election in the state, with the purchase of the PDP governorship nomination form by Sir Arthur Jarvis.
Jarvis secured his nomination forms at Abuja on Saturday, about the same time that Senator Sandy Onor, a former candidate of the PDP for the same office, collected his forms for the presidential election.
The duo are known to be allies of the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike. Sources confided in TNN on Saturday that Wike was unleashing his men to battle Otu as a way of revenging for his decision to stop Onor’s nomination as chairman of the South South Development Commission, SSDC, by the president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Otu was said to have fought against Onor’s nomination as a time that Wike was out of the country. Onor is believed to be a man after Wike’s heart.
The calculation, according to TNN sources, is to ensure that Otu pays dearly for waging war against Wike. It is said that by stopping Onor from becoming the chairman of the SSDC board chairman, Otu had declared war with Wike, without knowing.
A combination of Onor and Jarvis, sources said, will be enough trouble for Otu in the south and in the central senatorial districts of the state respectively. Onor is from Etung in the central, while Jarvis comes from the same southern senatorial district with Otu.
TNN was informed on Saturday night that Wike was ready for a stiff political battle in the coming days and would give Otu a fight for his money.
In fact, one source said “the 2027 governorship battle in Cross River State will be between Wike and Otu. The PDP presidential candidate is from Cross River. You can imagine how the PDP will show force in that state.
“Now, Arthur Jarvis is coming from the same system. Jarvis on his own is coming with so much strength, capacity and followership. And his strength will be buoyed up by Wike’s financial and strategic capacity as well as contacts. Otu will face a serious battle in the central and southern senatorial districts.”
This is coming even as the governor is being accused of trying to impose National Assembly candidates on the APC, in the three senatorial districts.
Latest developments are already becoming a source of concern to a chieftain of the APC in the state, Dr Peter Inyali.
Shortly after the news broke, that Onor and Jarvis had bought their forms, Inyali warned on his facebook wall, that the governor must be careful in handling the National Assembly primaries in the state, as there were fears of implosion that may set the party on fire and deny it electoral victory.
He said “at the moment, Prof. Onor and the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike appear to be thinking several steps ahead in the politics of succession and power consolidation in 2031. The APC’s strongest safeguard, therefore, would be the emergence of loyal, grassroots-driven National Assembly members with proven electoral value, political relevance, and the capacity to sustain the party’s influence after the current administration. In simple terms, the party must produce lawmakers who are both loyal and capable of effective performance.”
Last week, a pressure group, the Cross River Rebirth Alliance, had vowed to mobilise against the re-election of Otu. In a statement, they had lamented that the governor deviated from the vision of developing the state but was paying more attention to growing a church jointly run by him and the wife.
