Mr Ali Magashi, Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gubernatorial Primary Committee sent by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party has reaffirmed that his committee is the only one recognized by the National leadership of the party and as such it cannot be siad that there was a parallel guber congress in Cross River State.
Magashi who was entertaining questions from pressmen few minutes before departure from the Magret Ekpo international airport emphasized that his committee is the legal representative of the National Working Committee told journalist that only one primary congress held and that Congress is acknowledged by law.
According to him, "We are a people of rule of law, our party is a party of rule of law, and our party has a constitution and a process.
'So, to say that there is a parallel Congress, I think is a misnomer, because there is no parallel Congress, there is only one Congress by law, it is the Congress carried out by my committee and I.
'We are the legal representatives of the National Working Committee of our party, so anybody that goes outside to do any illegality, I don't know, the party does not recognise that.'
According to the guber primary committee chairman, to say that there's a parallel congress to select a governorship candidate in the state for the party is a misnomer.
Magashi also infoemed journalist his committee conducted a free and fair election as he narrated the steps taken by his committee to ensure the process was devoid of rigging and hijacking.
According to him 'This exercise has been adjudged even at the national level to be a very credible exercise and that is why one of the first candidates to be approved by the NWC among the gubernatorial is our on candidate.
'So, this truly speaks for itself. We were very open when we came to Calabar, we were very neutral and we have shown that by our actions and activities.
'After the courtesy call to the heads of security organizations in Cross River State and a courtesy call to INEC, the first thing we did was to call for a stakeholders meeting at our house which is the party secretariat for every body to come there and there was a very good turn out —leaders of our party, aspirants of our party that came for that process; we explained what the process was, we gave everybody a chance to participate, we asked people to ask questions and make comments, we took questions and comments, we responded to them, the materials were opened in front of three or five candidates that participated, all the aspirants, the materials was opened in front of them, the inventory of materials from Abuja was given to them and they counted —High Chief Edem Duke was there, Prof Eyo and Senator John was there.
'We planned the distribution in front of the candidates and leaders of the party, the materials left that evening and arrived and so far we've not received one case of violence anywhere as usually characterised by such exercises in the region.
'When you hear what has happened in your neighbourhoods, you would appreciate what has taken place here, the process went through and the candidate emerged through a choice of the people. This is not even a delegate election but a direct election where members of the party were given a chance to come out and vote and members of the party came out en mass and vote for a candidate they preferred and we reported to the NWC and it was accepted.'
Magashi said that the entire primary exercise and result obtained was acknowledged and one of the first to be accepted by the National Working Committee of the party. He said the acceptance was a validation of the process.
Finally, Magashi cautioned journalists in the state against lending credence to illegality. He was referring to the sham of a Congress sponsored by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr Usani Uguru Usani through the Etim John-led faction of the APC in Cross River.
Present at the press briefing which took place at the Margaret Ekpo Int'l Airport shortly before the Gubernatorial Primary committee left were the National Vice Chairman of the APC, Mr Hilliard Etta, Cross River State Chairman of the APC, Dr Matthew Achigbe, Cross River State APC gubernatorial candidate, Sen John Owan-Enoh, Hon Akiba Bassey the House of Representatives candidate for the Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Constituency, party faithfuls and supporters, etc.
0 comments: