Smarting from his encounter with the Cross River State Police Commissioner, Rashid Afegbua, after the police sealed off the venue for the inauguration of the party’s digital registration activities on Tuesday, a stakeholder in the state chapter of the ADC and former speaker of the state house of assembly, Bassey Ewah has accused the state government of plotting to silence their party and make sure the opposition does not exist.
But the government says they know nothing about whatever happened between the party and the police. Rather than work against their existence, the government says it would want the opposition to come up in the state to enable them try their luck at the polls, just so that they can be convinced that they are non-existent.
Even though Ewah told TNN that the police commissioner claimed to take the decision based on a petition by some persons who claimed to be party officials against the inauguration, the former acting state chairman of the PDP caretaker committee told TNN over the telephone that what was going on in the state was similar to what the APC was also suffering in other parts of the country.
He said it was unfortunate that the ruling APC was not willing to allow the opposition to survive. But he noted that the ADC would refuse to be cowed into submission. According to him, the party has since considered other alternatives and would continue with its digital registration of members.
Ewah said the state government was clearly afraid of the strength of the ADC, being the most vibrant opposition in the state, hence their decision to make moves to destabilise them.
But the state commissioner for information, Erasmus Ekpang has denied the state government’s involvement in the ADC’s predicament. He told TNN over the telephone on Tuesday that the government was used to such accusations, adding that neither he nor the state government was even aware that the police sealed the venue of ADC’s event.
