Andy Esiet, Calabar
Former governor of Cross River State , Senator Liyel Imoke and other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state have called on Nigerians to shun the All Progressives Congress (APC) for failing the people on all sides.
Speaking at the conveyance of different town hall meetings at weekend in Calabar Municipality, Biase, Akamkpa Local Government Areas in the state, along with notable party chieftains to sensitize traditional/religious bodies, civil society, party faithfuls and the general populace on the need to believe in the Atiku/Okowa ticket and PDP as the only panacea for correcting the eight disastrous years of APC that has left the citizenry impoverished and despondent, Imoke said, “it will be dangerous and disastrous to entrust APC with power again at the federal and states levels because they have failed woefully”.
Imoke who is the leader of the party in the state and Deputy Director General Operations Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, stated that “as it is now, it is only PDP that has the solutions to the present bad governance and leadership and whatever the APC and it’s people have been re-echoing are mere repetitions of failure as Atiku /Okowa presidency remains the only viable option for Nigeria”.
Accordingly, he cautioned the people against any resort to ethnic sentiments in their voting decisions, declaring that “votes wasted on Labor Party (LP) and other mushroom parties would amount to conferring advantage on the rudderless APC and reinforcing failure” .
On his part, the Senator representing Cross River South in the National Assembly, Sen. Gershom Bassey, said as a representative of the people he had seen it all in terms of the negative change the APC had brought upon the country and its citizens in the last eight years running.
He recalled the National Bureau of Statistics release which disclosed that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor while 63 per cent of Nigerians are poor by reason of lack of access to healthcare, education, good living standards, employment and security, hence he said, voting PDP will right those wrongs.
Bassey told the crowd of teeming supporters who thronged the venues that APC at the national level has failed, stating that the debt the present administration of Buhari has incurred is in trillion of dollars, revealing that the APC administration has resorted to taxing the people on everything in order to meet up with their cost of running government.
He assured the people that an Atiku government has come up with a blueprint and 5 point agenda that will tackle the mess of the failed APC government and this includes: to restore Nigeria’s unity through equity, social justice, and cooperation; establish a strong and effective government that guarantees the safety and security of life and property; build a strong, resilient, and prosperous economy that creates jobs and lifts people out of poverty; promote a true federal system which will provide strong Federal Government to guarantee national unity while allowing the federating units to set their own priorities; and spearhead education reform so it is driven by innovation, science and technology.
The PDP National Women Leader, Prof Stella Effa-Attoe pleaded with the people never to accept nor vote any party except PDP.
The PDP Senatorial candidate for Cross River South, Ntufam Ekpo Okon and the member representing Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Constituency and PDP candidate, Ntufam Etta Mbora also reminded the people that if there is any chance of redeeming the present situation, then PDP should be voted back to power at all levels.
High point of the town hall meetings was a reception for defectors led by a leader, Comrade Godwin Urom Ibe, popularly known as Sir Bello(001) and other APC members .
