How APC Stakeholders Truncated Cross River Council Chairmen Automatic Tickets
By Dominic Oko
Fresh facts have emerged on how the All progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders truncated the second term automatic ticket for the incumbent 18 council chairmen in Cross River.
Investigations by our reporter revealed that shortly after the election and subsequent declaration of Sen. Bassey Otu as the governor, the 18 chairmen intensified lobby for their second term, claiming that the party leadership promised to compensate them if the worked for the success of the party at the general election.
It was gathered that the immediate past Governor Ben Ayade had reached an arrangement with the council to return them to office before handing over power to his successor in other to give them a soft landing.
The Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) chairman, Prof. Mike Ushie, had postponed the 2023 local government election to October 21, 2023 as against the earlier announced date of May 24, 2023.
Ushie in a statement cited budgetary concerns as a major reason behind the shift in date for the election, adding that “the reschedule is due to budgetary concerns as the approved 2023 local government council elections is captured in the 2023 appropriation with no supplementary provision in the 2022 budget.
"The action was in line with Section 24 (2) of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended. Also, political parties are to sign and collect the rescheduled timetable at its headquarters in Calabar and said that the guidelines remain unchanged.
But on getting wind of the move by the chairmen, some powerful stakeholders loyal to Sen. Otu went into works and blocked all subterranean plots to not only conduct election before May 29, but to ensure that no arrangement with regard to automatic ticket is entered into between them and Ayade, thereby hanging their faith on the balance.
The stakeholders wondered why the council chairmen should be mount pressure for the conduct local government elections against the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) agreed date of October 2023.
The stakeholders maintained that the tenure of current 18 chairmen and 196 councilors would end on June 1, 2023, calling Sen Otu to appoint caretaker committee members for the 18 councils.
Kicking against such moves, Bar. Utum Eteng, one of the APC stakeholders from Yakurr local government area in the central senatorial district, said it would have been illegal and unconstitutional for the immediate present government to have conduct council elections at the twilight of the administration.
Eteng, who was also a member of APC state campaign organisation sai: “There are laid down rules and regulations that guides the conduct of elections and therefore would be unacceptable for a government to just wake and issue fiat order to CROSIEC when the present tenure of chairman ends on June 1, 2023.4.22
“I advised the government to just hand over and the new administration would continue from there. We all belong to the same APC and so nobody should create bad blood between Ayade and Out”.
