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Tag: Ndoma -Egba

  • Bomb scare as Jedy- Agba, Ndoma-Egba, Otu, others join APC 

    Bomb scare as Jedy- Agba, Ndoma-Egba, Otu, others join APC 

    There was a bomb scare yesterday morning at the Government Primary School in Calabar, Cross River State where over 1,000 former chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with their supporters joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The apprehension, however, did not deter thousands of APC supporters who poured into the venue to witness the event.

    National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, was grateful for the turn out, saying the state has joined the progressive fold.

    He urged Cross River to accept that the apostle of change, President Muhammadu Buhari, is  doing the right thing.

    He said those joining the party have national standing and have represented people in various capacities.

    He congratulated the defectors for accepting change and welcomed them to the party.

    He said true party men do not believe in sharing money but passionate about good governance.

    National Vice Chairman, South-South of the APC, Prince Hilliard Eta, said: “The people of the state are happy for what President Buhari has done for them in the past eight months.

    “We join hands with the President in the fight against corruption, impunity and disrespect for the rule of law. We would meet the PDP in the next election.”

    Prince Gody Jedy-Agba, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and Prince Bassey Otu, who spoke on behalf of the new members from the Northern, Central and Southern Senatorial Districts, were grateful for their reception.

    They promised to be loyal members and work hard to ensure Cross River becomes an APC state.

    They said they joined the APC to build an alternative formidable platform for the good of the people.

    They said the state would no longer be referred to as a one party state, assuring that the APC would be a vehicle for positive change.

  • Ndoma Egba and APC’s prospects in Cross River

    Ndoma Egba and APC’s prospects in Cross River

    After months of speculations, former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma Egba has finally switched his political allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Remi Adelowo in this report, examines the prospects of the APC in a state where conservative politics seem to have taken firm root

    Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State have been in an upbeat mood in the last couple of weeks.

    This development may not be unconnected to the defection of former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma Egba to the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Ndoma Egba’s defection was a big catch for the APC, whose popularity in the state has been nothing to write home about despite the merger of four legacy parties, all of which had operated at the peripheral of political activities in the South-South state.

    Though the formal defection of Ndoma Egba is yet to hold, sources revealed that the former Senate Leader joined the party with thousands of former PDP members who are protesting the alleged inhuman treatment meted to him by the immediate former governor of the state, Senator Liyel Imoke, in the run up to the last general elections.

    Aside the former Senate Leader, former Minister of Health and Works, Dr. Emmanuel Nsan; a former governor of the state, Clement Ebri; former PDP governorship aspirant, Prince Goddy Jeddy-Agba; a former senatorial aspirant of the PDP, Chief Sam Bassey; former LP governorship candidate in the April 11 poll, Ntufam Fidelis Ugbo and his running mate, Mrs. Nella Andem-Ewa Rabana (SAN) among others, are also poised to join the APC, it was gathered.

    The Nation learnt that the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo alongside APC national leadership led by its National Chairman, were billed to welcome the defectors at a rally slated for U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar on September 26, but the event has been rescheduled to an undisclosed date to allow for more extensive consultations among key political stakeholders in the state.

    The genesis

    The defection of Ndoma Egba was not unexpected. Following his failure to secure a fourth term ticket to the Senate, allegedly due to his fall-out with Imoke, the state PDP became sharply divided, with one faction loyal to the senator, while the other was controlled by Imoke and John Owan Enoh, a former member of the House of Representatives, who upstaged Ndoma Egba for the Central senatorial seat.

    The battle for the Central senatorial ticket between Ndoma Egba and Enoh was as acrimonious as it was controversial. Indeed, two controversial primaries were held before Enoh finally emerged as the PDP candidate, it was learnt.

    Imoke’s preference for Enoh, according to sources, was on the premise that only Enoh had the financial muscle to confront Ndoma Egba. Like the former Senate Leader, Enoh was also a three term member of the House of Representatives culminating in his appointment as the Chairman of the powerful Committee on Appropriation during his last term.

    Cross River PDP without Ndoma Egba

    Though Cross River state is one of the 12 states under the control of PDP, but the pockets of disenchantment within the party has grown in the aftermath of the party primaries conducted in November and December 2014 and also in the aftermath of the 2015 general elections.

    Aspirants were allegedly shortchanged during nomination process and their aspirations were thwarted with impunity by the powers that be led by Imoke.

    During the general elections as well, there were similar allegations of electoral fraud which is still being challenged at the tribunal by various effected persons, most of whom left PDP to either Labour Party or the APC.

    After the general elections which have produced two equally strong political parties in Nigeria, all the opposition members, including those that are pursuing their election petitions in the tribunal under the flagship of LP are reportedly ready to move to the APC.

    The Nation gathered that in the last few weeks, defection to the APC has been silently happening in droves at wards and local government levels across the state.

    Those who have recently defected to APC include streams of supporters of the former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, led by the erstwhile director general of his campaign organisation, Chief Ernest Irek.

    That is not all. The APC has also succeeded in wooing the former state Chairman of PDP, Ambassador Sony Abang; former Commissioner representing Cross River State in the Federal Character Commission, Chief Wilfred Inah; a former Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Benson Ebekpo, some former commissioners, former local government chairmen and retired Permanent Secretaries among others.

    This development has given rise to speculations that the state governor, Prof Ben Ayade, may also be considering a possible defection to the APC.

    Since his inauguration in May, the governor has allegedly been warming up to the Presidency to the consternation of Imoke and national leaders of the PDP.

    The acceptance by President Muhammadu Buhari to perform the groundbreaking of the construction of the 260km dual carriage superhighway in the state this week, has further given credence to speculations that Ayade is allegedly considering his political future outside the PDP.

    A very credible source disclosed that the governor has been very tactful in his political dealings of recent. While he remains in PDP, he has maintained a very close relationship with Ndoma Egba, who is alleged to have prevailed on the LP governorship candidate, Fidelis Ugbo, to withdraw his petition against the governor at a reconciliatory meeting held in Ndoma Egba’s office at the Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja.

    Within the PDP, there are fears that the party may be stripped bare if the governor eventually defects to the APC, a scenario reportedly giving the national leaders of the party serious jitters.

    With the combination of Ndoma-Egba, two former governors, Donald Duke and Clement Ebri and other political bigwigs, including Wilfred Inah, Sony Abang, Prince Bassey Otu, Dr. Alex Egbonna, and Dr. Julius Okpotu, who are still in court but are ready to join the APC fold as soon as they are done with their election petition matters, political pundits say the PDP has an herculean task first to maintain its 100 percent control of local government elected officials in 2016 and also to retain the state in 2019.

    The appointment of Pastor Usani Usani as the ministerial nominee representing Cross River state by President Buhari, analysts contend, would also give further fillip to the fortunes of the APC, which only controls Edo out of the six states in the South-South zone.

    Can APC, touted as a progressive party, dislodge the PDP and finally put an end to the conservative politics the state has been known for since its creation in the next four years? The answer to this poser remains in the realm of conjecture.

  • Ex-Senate Leader Ndoma-Egba quits PDP

    Ex-Senate Leader Ndoma-Egba quits PDP

    Former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba yesterday ended speculations about his political future with his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    His personally signed letter of resignation from his Akparabong Ward of Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State, dated September 14, was addressed to the PDP’s Acting Chairman.

    Ndoma-Egba, who represented Cross River Central Senatorial District, cited the factors that necessitated his exit from the party, on which platform he won elections into the Senate for 12 years – from 2003 to 2015.

    He said PDP’s current policies and direction had become inconsistent with his philosophy and commitment to democratic principles.

    The former Senate Leader said he “returned to politics to pursue certain ideals and values, to contribute towards strengthening democracy, to give a voice to his people, a people who have been most kind and generous to him, retain his state …in the national consciousness, attract Federal Government presence to Cross River” and offer his people choices and options.

    He added: “Hitherto, PDP was strong in Cross River because it offered members an atmosphere and opportunity for self-expression within its confines. Today, those values, which underline democracy, have totally become strange to the party,

    “I, therefore, resign my membership of the PDP forthwith and urge you to take the necessary steps to reflect this in your records…”

  • PDP, Ndoma-Egba and APC

    It is interesting that Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba’s purported plan to decamp to APC has generated enough discourse lately. Little wonder quasi and pseudo political pundits have trivialized the issue which received immense and enormous applause amongst Cross Riverians as Senator Ndoma-Egba was not the only that was one shut out of PDP. His followers were also not spared. The winners in the cancelled ward congress which saw Ndoma-Egba’s faction emerging victorious, House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and Governorship aspirants loyal to Ndoma-Egba with their supporters were also shut out of PDP and they have long decamped to APC. He is merely joining them to provide leadership as his character, integrity and political reach at the centre is needed in Cross River APC.

    As a follower of the events that preceded the 2015 General Elections, ward congresses were conducted in 2014 and Senator Ndoma-Egba’s line-up emerged victorious while the then Governor’s line-up lost. Same scenario played out in Enugu State between Senator Ike Ekweremadu and then Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime. A political settlement was brokered at the instance of PDP where Ekweremadu retained his Senate seat and the governor took the rest. Why wasn’t same done in the case of Cross River? Why did PDP order total cancellation of the result of the ward congress conducted by a committee sent by PDP chaired by a man of impeccable character Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun? Why was Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN then Senate Leader singled out for maltreatment? Questions without answer.

    Ndoma-Egba’s exit from PDP is not just because he was shut out and denied ticket; it is because he cannot retire from politics now and in Nigeria one needs a political party as a platform to play politics. It is true he was a Senator under PDP for 12 years, but when your employer of 12 years decides to prematurely terminate your employment without any justification, you shouldn’t continue to hang around them. You should move on and moving means getting engaged by another employer. Senator Ndoma-Egba is merely yielding to our yearning as we the constituents can’t stand him being retired from politics as he is below 60 years of age and his services are still needed.

    And I still wonder the reason for the fuse over Ndoma-Egba’s decampment. Two of PDP’s former national chairmen are now in APC. Why did they leave? The highest ticket a party can give to anyone is that of the President. Olusegun Obasanjo a former President tore his PDP membership card and decamped to APC. Atiku Abubakar as a former Vice President also decamped even while in office . All these boil down to the party’s inability to handle its affairs.

    It is now established that PDP loathes and despises what APC desires and hunts for and that is political intellectuals. PDP governors and former governors either by design or divine succeeded in pushing away the resource of the party which is the intellectuals as they are afraid of challenge. They instead prefer yes-men. In a way, this attribute accounted for APC’s victory in the last general elections as all those shut out of PDP like Senator Ndoma-Egba switched parties and emerged victorious afterwards.

    In Kebbi State, Senator Atiku Bagudu was a PDP Senator. He was denied PDP’s governorship ticket. APC offered him its platform and today he is the governor of the state. Same scenario played out in Benue, Niger, Bauchi, Jigawa and Plateau states. Senator Barnabas Gemade, a former National Chairman of PDP was edged out of the party by the former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and PDP was silent; he moved over to APC and won the election afterwards. Ndoma-Egba was principled enough not to have taken the mandate of PDP to another party as that was what played out then. He instead chose to remain in PDP to exhaust their mandate to the displeasure of many of us who pleaded with him to decamp before the elections.

    I still remember Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, a political intellectual that was retired by the former Akwa Ibom State governor Victor Attah. He is nowhere to be located now in the national and state political map and the state is worse for it. We in Cross River State cannot fold our hands and allow that happen to us. As at now Cross River has no voice at the national level as they have all been cunningly plucked out. We lost our oil wells, we also lost tourism and sports to our sister state and all these happened under one man, Liyel Imoke.

    Until PDP as a party decides to return power back to the people, and not to allow its governors decide who gets what, when and how, it will never get its act right again.\

    ‘It is now established that PDP loathes and despises what APC desires and hunts for and that is political intellectuals. PDP governors and former governors either by design or divine succeeded in pushing away the resource of the party which is the intellectuals as they are afraid of challenge’

     

    • Iwara writes from Calabar

  • Cross River APC leaders woo Ndoma-Egba

    Some leaders of the Cross River All Progressives Congress (APC), led by the Vice Chairman of Central and Chairman of the Stabilisation and Mobilisation Committee, Mr. Cletus Obun have visited former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba.

    They urged him to join the party. Obun said APC and Cross River State needed his character, integrity, personality leadership and father figure in the party.

    They urged him to ignore media attacks on his speculated membership of the party because the attacks were not from the APC but allegedly  by those they called sponsored hirelings of the opposition party.

    Obun said the visit was necessary because APC and the state needed Ndoma-Egba  to benefit from his political strength in the state and at the Federal levels.

    The spokesman noted  that no the decision was taken at a resolution of an enlarged stakeholders and State Executive meeting of the party  in Ikom, Cross River State.

    According to him, APC agreed to go on a serious membership drive to increase its members ahead of the forthcoming local government elections in the state.

    Obun said Ndoma-Egba was targeted among those to be wooed into the party.

    The spokesman said the elderswanted to take advantage of the ill-treatment meted out to him by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to  join the APC.

    He said Ndoma-Egba’s movement to APC  would be  an historic duty because his experience would enable the party to develop further.

    Another member of the delegation and former Minority Leader and only APC member in the Cross River State House of Assembly, Alex Irek noted   that ‘’because we know where the sponsorship is coming from, the party mandated us to come and plead with you to come fast”.

    According to him, Ndoma-Egba’s defection was long overdue because APC members were already waiting for him to join the progressives.

  • Protest as APC members foreclose Ndoma-Egba’s defection

    Some Cross River State members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday protested the speculation that former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba will soon join the party.

    The protesters, bearing placards with various messages at the party’s secretariat in Calabar, the state capital, said if Ndoma-Egba intended to join APC, he should follow due process.

    Leading the protest, a caucus member of the party and former deputy governorship candidate, Elder David Okon said: “What you are seeing here is a subtle protest and it has to do with what APC members are hearing. This is politics. A lot of things can happen and those concerned are unaware of them.

    “No member of the APC is averse to or does not want other Nigerians to cross over to the party. The truth remains that you must follow due process. You have to register from the ward, to the state and the national levels.

    “Going to join the party from the national or getting the appointment you so criticised or did not even work for, is what we oppose.

    “I am a state caucus member of the party and a deputy governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The APC, as we have today, if not because of people like me, we would not have it. It is annoying that people in the saddle in the past 16 years just bring their plates to eat when the soup prepared by others is done. We are doing what is justifiable today.”

    But a lawyer and social commentator Utum Eteng said nobody can stop others from joining the APC or any other party.

    He said: “Are you saying there should be no credible opposition because one or two persons are afraid of a healthy competition? Even if Ndoma-Egba decides to join the APC, it is not because he lacks what to do or is looking for appointments, but to contribute his quota from another angle.”

     

     

  • Apologise to us or remain in PDP, APC tells Ndoma-Egba

    Cross River State All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba to apologise to the party, if he wishes to defect to it.

    The party was reacting yesterday in Abuja during a protest to APC’s National Vice Chairman (Southsouth), Prince Hilliard Eta.

    It said Ndoma-Egba should apologise to APC members he allegedly persecuted in the run-off to the last general election and for asking the state to reject the party’s presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, and his change agenda.

    Eta’s spokesman Bassey Okon said Ndoma-Egba should also mend fences with those he offended in the party and various local government areas.

    The senator was directed withdraw the text message he reportedly sent out during the campaign in which he urged the people not to vote for the APC.

    Ndoma-Egba, who lost in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries ahead ofo the last general election, was said to have concluded plans to join APC with some prominent PDP and Labour Party (LP) members.

    Their defection is scheduled to hold at a rally on September 26 at the U. J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar, the state capital.

    Okon said: “Without prejudice to the right of Senator Ndoma-Egba to join any association, we, of the Forum of APC Chairmen in Cross River State, urge the former Senate Leader to go settle with APC members he vilified in Ikom Local Government Area, where he comes from, to have a soft landing in our party.”

    He added: “If Ndoma-Egba, a self-acclaimed master of logic, forgot the words of legendary Nelson Mandela, that to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others, he has caused the arrest, detention and persecution of APC members in the state on trumped-up charges. Then, he perhaps did not remember the wise counsel of the late Mandela that “After climbing a hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb”.

    Eta thanked the chairmen for their visit and assured that the party would maintain an unwavering stand against impunity and corruption.

    He reaffirmed his position that APC’s leadership was not aware of the planned defection of the former Senate Leader, among others, into the party.

    The party’s zonal chairman noted that until due process of the planned defection was adhered to, nobody would claim to have successfully defected to the APC.

    Eta urged the chairmen to support the anti-corruption posture of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    He noted that though the task was Herculean, but with the support of Nigerians, the government would succeed in ridding the nation of corrupt tendencies.

     

     

     

  • APC not aware of Ndoma-Egba’s defection plan

    The leadership of Southsouth All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied a report that former Cross River State Governor Clement Ebri and former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba with their supporters will soon defect to the party.

    A statement by Bassey Ita, the media aide to APC’s Southsouth National Vice Chairman Hilliard Eta, said the party’s leadership was not aware of the defection plan.

    The statement alluded to the report that Ndoma-Egba, Ebri, Senator Bassey Otu, Ntufam Fidelis Ugbo and other, who are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) were planning to join APC.

    Eta said: “I am not aware of anyone defecting to our party. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, nobody is crossing over from any other party to our party in Cross River State. Since I do not know, the report that anyone is defecting to APC in Cross River State is not true.”

    The zonal chairman urged APC members and the public to discountenance the report, adding that it emanated from the figment of the writer’s imagination.

    Reports had said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, among the party’s top chieftains, would receive thousands of PDP defectors in Cross River State into the APC at a rally billed for September 26 at the U. J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar.

  • Ndoma-Egba set to join APC

    Barring any last minute change of mind, former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) is set to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Sources close to the senator said talks between him and the party’s leadership were in top gear for Ndoma-Egba’s defection.

    The senator’s decision to abandon the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was learnt, is not unconnected with the way he has been sidelined in the running of the PDP in Cross River State, where he hails from.

    Almost all his supporters in the state are said to have defected to the APC and have been urging him to follow suit.

    Ndoma-Egba was elected into the Senate in 2003 on the platform of the PDP to represent Cross River Central.

    He became Senate Leader in 2011.

    But former Governor Liyel Imoke allegedly turned the machinery of the party against him in the run-up to the 2015 general elections.

    Sources in APC also said Ndoma-Egba is highly priced by the party to enable it make an in-road into Cross River State and the Southsouth.

  • Ndoma-Egba’s visit to Buhari ‘ok’

    Ndoma-Egba’s visit to Buhari ‘ok’

    The visit of a delegation of Cross River State politicians, led by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba, to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, was in order, it was learnt yesterday.

    The Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Cross River State, a group of politicians in major political parties, Mr Goddie Akpama, noted that such visits should not be misconstrued.

    Akpama said: “For us in IPAC in the state, we insist that there is nothing wrong with the composition of that delegation nor the mission statement presented to President-elect Buhari on behalf of Cross River by that delegation of eminent Cross River indigenes. It was in Cross Rivers State’s larger interest.

    “If anything, those still planning their visits should enlarge the volume of neglect and deprivation that Cross River State has endured.”

    The IPAC chairman said the reaction by a nascent forum of elders of the Cross River All Progressives Congress (APC), published in some dailies, was in bad taste.

    He said it also portrayed them as helpless party men who could not find their way to the power base of the party.