Opposition in Cross River State, the All Progressive Congress (APC) has warned that if the state Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) continues to delay or shift indefinitely, the conduct of local government election, it would seek legal action.
The Acting State Chairman of the party, John Ochalla, gave the party’s position during an interaction with our correspondent in his office shortly after he ended a meeting with candidates of the party for the local government elections who emerged from primary elections held in all the eighteen LGAs in the state.
“As you can see, we are prepared for the local government election and I dare say APC is the only party that is duly prepared for the elections. We have conducted our primaries and our flag bearers had since emerged while the ruling PDP in the state is yet to do theirs,” Ochalla said.
“We were in court before when the tenure of the elected local government chairmen expired last year’s December and elections were not conducted. Earlier this year, CROSIEC came up with a date which they later shifted citing reasons which were really not tenable to us but we took it because we knew their earlier date did not align with the law. Now that INEC is done with the PVC exercise which CROSIEC relied on, we have heard from un-official sources that elections may come up in November this year. For us, we will only wait a while and go back to court if they refuse to do the right thing”, the APC chairman said.
According to him, the PDP government in the state is afraid of the level of our (APC’s) preparation so they are still wondering how to handle the proposed elections.
He also spoke on the recent case concerning a serving member of Cross River State House of Assembly whose seat was declared vacant by the state legislature after he decamped from PDP to APC.
Ochalla said: “What the state legislature has done is unlawful and we are already in court on that specific matter because what Egom Lucate did was within the ambit of the law and the state legislature has erred by declaring vacant his seat, Obubra State constituency and directing INEC to conduct a bye-election.”
According to the state Chairman of APC, “that order of the legislature is absolutely null and void and of no effect until the matter is determined by the court of law. As we speak, the court has said that all status quo must be maintained by all parties until final determination of the substantive suit.”
“So things are going to remain the way it is, I can assure you that all remedies and allowances will be given to him because he moved to APC within the ambit of the law,” he added.
“The law is very clear and specific, but PDP and their leadership are trying to be clever by half by invoking a section of the Nigerian constitution and leaving a section of the same constitution that states that if there are amalgamated parties and you are not comfortable with it, or if there are factions within your party, you are free to decamp. The whole world knows that at the time the member decamped to APC, PDP had a clear-cut faction from the National to the ward level,” Ochalla explained.
Mike Agbe, the state APC treasurer, said the position of the APC on the matter is very clear, adding that the party will get back the seat through lawful means as the party believes in the rule of law. He stressed that what happened at the floor of the House of Assembly was a display of high level impunity by the PDP.
“Before the House took their decision on the matter, the court had already served the House of Assembly an injunction on the matter through the clerk of the House, but because they are lawless, they went ahead to declare his seat vacant,” Agbe alleged.
MIKE ABANG, Calabar
