The Independent National Electoral Commission’s
timetable for 2012 governorship election has triggered intrigues among
politicians in Cross River State, where Governor Liyel Imoke is seeking
a second term ticket, MUDIAGA AFE writes.
As Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State prepares for his re-election in April 2012, opposition against him is thickening, even within his Peoples Democratic Party.
The state is among the five that benefitted from tenure elongation. It will be recalled that a Federal High Court in Abuja last February opened a new chapter in the tenure of state governors when it ruled that five state chief executives, who won rerun elections in 2008, started their administrations from the date of their last inauguration.
The verdict was at the instance of a consolidated suit by the governors of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi, and Sokoto states against the bid by Independent National Electoral Commission and the PDP to conduct the governorship election when they were yet to complete their four-year tenure.
Prior to the just-concluded April general elections, when it was not clear if he would contest, Imoke had assembled his foot soldiers, comprising members of his executive, PDP members in the national and state assemblies, the party’s leadership in the state, local government chairmen and interest groups and solicited their votes.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, which is perceived as one of the strongest opposition parties was also not left out. The party through its chairman, Mr. Cletus Obun and the governorship candidate, Senator Matthew Mbu (Jnr.), had mobilised its supporters for the race. The Labour Party also had an activist female legal practitioner, Mrs. Ima Nsa-Adegoke.
All these, however, became history as no governorship election was held in April. But prior to the announcement of the new timetable by INEC, there was perceived cracks in the walls of the PDP.
The party, according to a source, is divided over the inability of Imoke to appease all the political zones in the state. The source disclosed that party chieftains and followers in Cross River North senatorial district for instance, were not happy with the lopsided appointments that have evaded the district.
He disclosed that plans were underway by these aggrieved PDP leaders, to dump the party for opposition parties.
However, the Deputy Director-General of the PDP campaign organisation, Chief Paul Adah, in a press statement debunked the said allegation which was published in a national daily (not THE PUNCH). In reference to the publication, Adah said that it was not true that cracks within the PDP was giving Imoke sleepless nights and also putting him under fire.
Adah had in the statement said, as the deputy director-general of the PDP campaign organisation in the state, the said publication of Imoke being under fire did not reflect the true position of the state of the party.
According to him, the newspaper report had alleged that “the party in the state is in crisis and Imoke under fire based on the alleged pre-arranged succession intention which Cross Riverians are afraid of.”
He said the PDP family in the state was still intact and was working diligently towards the 2012 governorship election. He added that Imoke would not lose any sleep over the poll because of his performance in the distribution of dividends of democracy in the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. This, according to him, had endeared the governor to his people, especially those in the rural areas.
Adah said there was no crisis in the party and that if there was any at all, it only existed in the imagination of those raising the alarm.
On the issue of appointment of minister representing the state, he said that Imoke made a wise decision. According to him, the minister, Chief Edem Duke, was occupying a very important ministry capable of turning around the economic fortune of the country. Duke, he noted, had the charisma and capability to reposition the ministry of Tourism, Culture and Orientation.
He also pointed out that it was not true that Cross River North, which was expected to produce the next governor at the expiration of Imoke’s tenure has lost out because it did not produce the minister.
He said, “One does not have to be a minister to be qualified for governorship nomination and contest. Even then, the idea that Cross River North has missed the gubernatorial race because it could not get the ministerial slot is very wrong.
“State governors have emerged from such positions as ex-national assembly members, ex-commissioners, ex-speakers of state houses of assembly, ex-chiefs of staff to governors and ex-secretaries to state government etc as well as people from the academia and business communities. The North has enough of these from whom a gubernatorial candidate could emerge from 2015 (or rather 2016) elections.”
Adah, who was the immediate representative of Obudu/Bekwarra/Obanliku federal constituency of the state in the House of Representatives and a PDP senatorial aspirant in the last general elections, said that it was not true that there was bitterness in the PDP as a result of the National Assembly and other polls in the state.
“I happily stand by the decision of the people and remain grateful to God and loyal to the PDP family, while I look ahead faithfully for other opportunities as the party pleases,” Adah said.
He called on all the people of the state to be committed towards Imoke’s re-election because of his performance. He also told his kinsmen in the Cross River North to discountenance speculations of pre-arranged succession and work together in their bid to produce Imoke’s successor after 2016. He reassured the people that the PDP as a family remained intact and on course.
Commenting on the cracks in the state PDP, the Special Assistant to Governor Imoke on Youth, Mr. Dorn Clemz Enameh, said that the governor’s achievement would give him victory in the 2012 elections. He said that since Imoke took over as the governor of the state, he had brought back prominent politicians who fled from the state in the last administration for alleged hostile environment, stressing that the PDP works as a family and has embraced internal democracy.
The Special Assistant said, the entire youth of the State are strongly behind his boss, stressing that even if the election was to be held within the week, Imoke has no challenger. Mr. Enameh said he would mobilise the youth of the state to give the governor maximum support. Besides, he said that people from the Cross River North had benefitted immensely from Imoke’s administration and would continue to benefit.
On the presence of opposition to challenge Imoke in the governorship election, he said that even those in rural areas knew that it was the administration of the governor that had really touched their lives as previous administrations concentrated more at the state capital and embarked on elitists programmes while his boss believed in taking government to those who need it most.
Also, the Special Assistant on Information Communication Technology, ICT, Mr. Julius Agrinya, who is also from the Cross River North senatorial zone, said that Imoke’s administration had the vision to build the state to a state of well educated citizens living in peace and harmony with man and nature pursuing their legitimate businesses.
“This vision is contained in the seven-point agenda of the administration. The Governor has vigorously pursued agricultural development, education, infrastructural development like roads and water, health care delivery social services and environmental development,” he said.
Agrinya said that the programme of Imoke had made him the hero in the state as all communities have benefitted from his administration’s transformation agenda, pointing out that the governor through the provision of infrastructural facilities in the rural areas has reduced urban migration as well as create wealth for the rural dwellers.
As political activities are about to gather steam in the state, the true picture of the party will soon manifest. That is the time to really know if the governor is under fire. For now, there is no sign that something is wrong somewhere, though it is said that there is no smoke without fire. Time of reckoning is fast approaching.
By MUDIAGA AFE Courtesy Of: Punch
As Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State prepares for his re-election in April 2012, opposition against him is thickening, even within his Peoples Democratic Party.
The state is among the five that benefitted from tenure elongation. It will be recalled that a Federal High Court in Abuja last February opened a new chapter in the tenure of state governors when it ruled that five state chief executives, who won rerun elections in 2008, started their administrations from the date of their last inauguration.
The verdict was at the instance of a consolidated suit by the governors of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi, and Sokoto states against the bid by Independent National Electoral Commission and the PDP to conduct the governorship election when they were yet to complete their four-year tenure.
Prior to the just-concluded April general elections, when it was not clear if he would contest, Imoke had assembled his foot soldiers, comprising members of his executive, PDP members in the national and state assemblies, the party’s leadership in the state, local government chairmen and interest groups and solicited their votes.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, which is perceived as one of the strongest opposition parties was also not left out. The party through its chairman, Mr. Cletus Obun and the governorship candidate, Senator Matthew Mbu (Jnr.), had mobilised its supporters for the race. The Labour Party also had an activist female legal practitioner, Mrs. Ima Nsa-Adegoke.
All these, however, became history as no governorship election was held in April. But prior to the announcement of the new timetable by INEC, there was perceived cracks in the walls of the PDP.
The party, according to a source, is divided over the inability of Imoke to appease all the political zones in the state. The source disclosed that party chieftains and followers in Cross River North senatorial district for instance, were not happy with the lopsided appointments that have evaded the district.
He disclosed that plans were underway by these aggrieved PDP leaders, to dump the party for opposition parties.
However, the Deputy Director-General of the PDP campaign organisation, Chief Paul Adah, in a press statement debunked the said allegation which was published in a national daily (not THE PUNCH). In reference to the publication, Adah said that it was not true that cracks within the PDP was giving Imoke sleepless nights and also putting him under fire.
Adah had in the statement said, as the deputy director-general of the PDP campaign organisation in the state, the said publication of Imoke being under fire did not reflect the true position of the state of the party.
According to him, the newspaper report had alleged that “the party in the state is in crisis and Imoke under fire based on the alleged pre-arranged succession intention which Cross Riverians are afraid of.”
He said the PDP family in the state was still intact and was working diligently towards the 2012 governorship election. He added that Imoke would not lose any sleep over the poll because of his performance in the distribution of dividends of democracy in the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. This, according to him, had endeared the governor to his people, especially those in the rural areas.
Adah said there was no crisis in the party and that if there was any at all, it only existed in the imagination of those raising the alarm.
On the issue of appointment of minister representing the state, he said that Imoke made a wise decision. According to him, the minister, Chief Edem Duke, was occupying a very important ministry capable of turning around the economic fortune of the country. Duke, he noted, had the charisma and capability to reposition the ministry of Tourism, Culture and Orientation.
He also pointed out that it was not true that Cross River North, which was expected to produce the next governor at the expiration of Imoke’s tenure has lost out because it did not produce the minister.
He said, “One does not have to be a minister to be qualified for governorship nomination and contest. Even then, the idea that Cross River North has missed the gubernatorial race because it could not get the ministerial slot is very wrong.
“State governors have emerged from such positions as ex-national assembly members, ex-commissioners, ex-speakers of state houses of assembly, ex-chiefs of staff to governors and ex-secretaries to state government etc as well as people from the academia and business communities. The North has enough of these from whom a gubernatorial candidate could emerge from 2015 (or rather 2016) elections.”
Adah, who was the immediate representative of Obudu/Bekwarra/Obanliku federal constituency of the state in the House of Representatives and a PDP senatorial aspirant in the last general elections, said that it was not true that there was bitterness in the PDP as a result of the National Assembly and other polls in the state.
“I happily stand by the decision of the people and remain grateful to God and loyal to the PDP family, while I look ahead faithfully for other opportunities as the party pleases,” Adah said.
He called on all the people of the state to be committed towards Imoke’s re-election because of his performance. He also told his kinsmen in the Cross River North to discountenance speculations of pre-arranged succession and work together in their bid to produce Imoke’s successor after 2016. He reassured the people that the PDP as a family remained intact and on course.
Commenting on the cracks in the state PDP, the Special Assistant to Governor Imoke on Youth, Mr. Dorn Clemz Enameh, said that the governor’s achievement would give him victory in the 2012 elections. He said that since Imoke took over as the governor of the state, he had brought back prominent politicians who fled from the state in the last administration for alleged hostile environment, stressing that the PDP works as a family and has embraced internal democracy.
The Special Assistant said, the entire youth of the State are strongly behind his boss, stressing that even if the election was to be held within the week, Imoke has no challenger. Mr. Enameh said he would mobilise the youth of the state to give the governor maximum support. Besides, he said that people from the Cross River North had benefitted immensely from Imoke’s administration and would continue to benefit.
On the presence of opposition to challenge Imoke in the governorship election, he said that even those in rural areas knew that it was the administration of the governor that had really touched their lives as previous administrations concentrated more at the state capital and embarked on elitists programmes while his boss believed in taking government to those who need it most.
Also, the Special Assistant on Information Communication Technology, ICT, Mr. Julius Agrinya, who is also from the Cross River North senatorial zone, said that Imoke’s administration had the vision to build the state to a state of well educated citizens living in peace and harmony with man and nature pursuing their legitimate businesses.
“This vision is contained in the seven-point agenda of the administration. The Governor has vigorously pursued agricultural development, education, infrastructural development like roads and water, health care delivery social services and environmental development,” he said.
Agrinya said that the programme of Imoke had made him the hero in the state as all communities have benefitted from his administration’s transformation agenda, pointing out that the governor through the provision of infrastructural facilities in the rural areas has reduced urban migration as well as create wealth for the rural dwellers.
As political activities are about to gather steam in the state, the true picture of the party will soon manifest. That is the time to really know if the governor is under fire. For now, there is no sign that something is wrong somewhere, though it is said that there is no smoke without fire. Time of reckoning is fast approaching.
By MUDIAGA AFE Courtesy Of: Punch
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