By Tina Ezin, Calabar
Senator John Owan-Enoh has said that the recent victory of the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade in the court case on the governor’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was defining for the party ahead of the 2023 election.
Speaking at the State party secretariat at weekend when he consulted the party’s State Working Committee members to inform them of his aspiration to seek for the governorship ticket of the party for the 2023 elections, Owan-Enoh said the court victory was a moral booster and defining for the APC in the State ahead of 2023.
According to him, the 2023 elections will be keenly contested in every constituency across the state. “We have an opposition party that has men and resources to match us in very step we take. So, the APC’s ability to win will depend on the competitive edge over the PDP. “
He said issues of competence, ability, content, capacity and competitiveness will be in the front burner.
He stated that the margins of victory in the 2023 election in Cross River State will be very narrow just as it was recently during the February 26th By-elections where APC won the contested national assembly seat with a slim margin and lost the state assembly seat with 500 votes difference.
“APC must field the best candidate to secure victory. The election is not going to be about our digital governor. With the new electoral law and the introduction of BVAS by INEC, the advantage of incumbent government is diminishing”, he said.
Owan-Enoh made a strong argument for himself as the best choice the APC should look up to not minding argument for zoning of the Party ticket in some quarters, saying “the Central Zone (where he comes from) has remained the most competitive compared to other places, 2023 is not for taking chances. APC needs a united party, front and everyone having access to what the party has to offer”.
He urged that the leadership of Party must field a candidate without baggage if it must win election for position of a governor in 2023.
Owan-Enoh invited the party exco to attend the formal flag off of his consultations and declaration to run for governorship taking place at Ogoja in the northern senatorial district.
He said can’t become the governor and move to scatter things that were done for the benefits of the State. “I am coming to to be governor to consolidate on the past administrations up to the present.
Responding, the State Deputy Chairman of APC, Mr. Eka Williams who stood in for the State Chairman, Mr. Alphonsus Eba, welcomed Owan-Enoh to the party secretariat and advised that all APC aspirants should go about their consultations and lobby peacefully and none should rundown one another.
Rather they should use the opportunity to seek new members into APC and campaign for more voter registration.
