Seventeen members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Cross River state have expressed their intention to run for the state’s governor under the ruling party.
The state Chairman of the party, Alphonsus Eba, stated this on Wednesday evening after the inauguration of the seven-man ad hoc committee led by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba.
He said the committee was charged with the responsibility of reducing the number to four, two each from the Central and Southern Senatorial zones, insisting that the party has not zoned the governorship ticket to any part of the state.
Some of the governorship aspirants on the APC platform are Senator John Owan-Enoh, Pastor Usani Usani, Senator Bassey Otu, Asuquo Ekpenyong, Ben Akak, Nsa Ekpenyong, Chris Agara, Edem Effiom and Ogban Ebock.
Eba said the party resorted to this approach because of the trying times in order to save costs to be borne by the aspirants who are expected to buy the nomination form for N50 million.
He said the consensus arrangement “is not to cow any individual. We are more concerned about the unity of the party. We won’t force anybody to agree on consensus.”
Eba said a meeting was held with the aspirants to this effect and commended them for agreeing to surrender their authority to the party.
He said the consensus option was not by compulsion as any of the aspirants was free to buy the nomination form and contest.
He announced that the sale of the nomination forms had been extended to May 11, 2022.
