The Cross
River State governorship primary slated for Sunday in the various wards has been
postponed to Monday (today) due to the late arrival of materials.
The National
Vice-Chairman of the party in the South-South, Chief Hilliard Eta, said the
postponement was due to the late arrival of the seven-member election committee
members sent to the state.
This came
amid a protest by two governorship aspirants of the party, Chief Edem Duke and
Prof. Etim Nyong, that the party structure was being hijacked by Eta to favour
a governorship aspirant from the central senatorial district.
However, Eta
denied the claims that he was frustrating the process by allowing some persons
to hijack materials.
He said when
the committee members arrived the state, they had to pay courtesy calls to some
security outfits including the police and the Department of State Services.
“I have
heard the allegation that I have connived to hijack election materials. Let me assure all our members that nothing is
farther from the truth. We have just
returned from visits to security services and INEC and the materials are in the
custody of the Ali Magaji committee. The
materials will be distributed and by tomorrow, the election will commence in
all the 196 wards in the state.”
But earlier,
Duke and Nyong had alleged that materials meant for the conduct of the election
had been hijacked by the National Vice Chairman, claiming that he was in favour
of a particular governorship aspirant.
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