PDP, CROSIEC insist on Cross River Council polls

Despite protest and confusion in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) are ready for the Local Government polls in the state.

A faction of APC, led by Sir John Ochala drawing its strength from an Abuja Appeal Court ruling as the legitimate executive in the state has called on all its members to boycott the council polls on Saturday as announced by the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC).

Ochala said, “the APC, Cross River State will not be part of the charade on Saturday…ab into, processes leading to the conduct of this election have been froth with gross irregularities and deliberate subversion of basic constitutional requirements guiding conduct of the election”.

But a faction led by Mr. Godwin Etim John has fielded candidates for the election and accused the Ochala faction of being impostors., saying, “we wish to clarify that APC has not decided to boycott the weekend local government elections. We have our candidates ready”.

The Senator representing the Southern Senatorial District of the state, Senator Gershom Bassey has however maintained that PDP was partaking in the election and called on voters in the state to turn out en mass and vote for all PDP candidates in the May 30 local government elections.

In a statement made available to some newsmen yesterday, Senator Bassey said “the PDP has done well in the state over the years and there is need to consolidate on the gains recorded by voting for the PDP candidates at the local government level” .

He expressed confidence that these successes will continue as the PDP is part of the DNA of the state and “all the stakeholders should rally round the party to achieve greater heights” .

Bassey congratulated the PDP under the leadership of Prince Uche Secondus and Governor Ben Ayade for the successes of the party in the state.

CROSIEC on its part said it was ready for the polls as plans are on top gear to deploy 8,000 ad hoc staff for the local government election scheduled for May 30.

The CROSIEC Chairman, Dr. Mike Ushie, said PDP, APC and three other parties’ names are on the ballot papers and “8,000 ad hoc staff will man the 2,266 polling units in the 18 local government areas of the state, with three deployed to each of the polling units.”