Finally, C'River APC chairman Eba, impeached

Judex OKORO 

At last, the Chairman of the Cross River State All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Alphonsus Eba, has been impeached by the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party.

Eba's removal followed an emergency meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC), which held at the State Secretariat in Calabar on Thursday.

The removal was carried out after 30 of the 32 members SEC voted against his continued stay as the Chairman of the APC in Cross River.

It was noted that the decision to impeach him followed a similar vote of no confidence against him by the local government chairmen, secretaries, and vice chairmen of the party.

Similarly, his impeachment was further supported by the vote of no confidence passed on him by the 196 ward chairmen of the APC in the state.

Following Eba's impeachment, the State Working Committee (SWC) met and appointed an acting chairman by the State Working Committee (SWC).

The motion for the appointment of an acting chairman was raised by the State Welfare Secretary of the party, Mr Okara Ekawu, and seconded by the state treasurer, Dr Mathew Egom.

Ekawu premised his motion on article 17 subsection 6 of the party’s constitution and further noted that the appointment be made pending the ratification of the National Working Committee (NWC).

Meanwhile, the acting chairman, Mr Ekum Ojogu, who promised to work for the unity of the party, appealed to all aggrieved members to close ranks and confine the event of the past few weeks to "dustbin of history."

According to him, "I will fight for the party’s stability and so, I appeal to us all to set aside any differences and misunderstanding that may have arose during the crisis and let's work for the interests of the APC.

"I will operate an open door policy, carry everyone along, and do want us to know that the APC remained committed to delivering dividends of democracy to our people," he stated.

While pledging to be loyal to Governor Bassey Otu , he said, "I want to believe, and I know that the battle of the last few weeks will only make us stronger."

It would be recalled that the state chapter of the APC has been imbroiled in crises with the chapter chairmen alleging him of various allegations.

It would be recalled that the crisis started when the forum of local government chairmen and secretaries of the party had demanded Eba’s resignation.

The forum led by Chief Kelvin Njong, based their demand for Eba resignation on "high handedness, insolent, underrating, and transactional approach in party administration."

They also accused the chairman of instigating chapter and ward party officials against the chapter leadership.

Similarly, they further accused him of refusal to remit the percentage meant for the local government areas and wards from the sales of forms during the 2023 general elections.

According to the communique, "While the local government areas and wards comprising of 5,778 Party officials were given N9.2 million, the state executive with just 36 members took N40 million.

"This is gross injustice and typical of the chairman. We also have other sundry remittances from the National Secretariat that are unaccounted for."

However, the chairman had earlier dismissed allegations of high-handedness and financial mismanagement levelled against him by the chapter chairmen.

Eba described the accusations as laughable, insisting that the chapter chairmen were "running away from their shadows" after allegedly embezzling ₦60 million meant for ward and chapter executives.

NAN reports also that the governor had waded into the crisis and appealed to the forum for calm while he investigate the allegations.