Andy Esiet, Calabar
Ahead of the March 11 governorship election in Cross River state, Northern Youths, Stakeholders and others have resolved to vote for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bassey Otu.
They said they are supporting Otu because is a good man going by his track record when he was in the senate and secondly the Southern Senatorial district supported the Northern senatorial district to produce a governor in 2015 and 2019 (eight years), so “one good turn deserves another” .
The Youths and other stakeholders took this position on Friday when Senator Otu, met with key political, religious and other critical stakeholders, youths, leaders in the northern senatorial and key aggrieved political leaders in all the five local government areas in the district.
The visit is seen as an attempt to strengthen the senatorial district ahead of the upcoming nationwide March 11 governorship and state assembly elections due to the shocking defeat of the APC in the northern region, were the party lost all national assembly seats ro the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking at the meeting, representative of the youth group, Comrade Maurice Nkong, assured Sen. Otu of the resolve of youths in the northern district to deliver him saying, “Sir the youths in the North want to tell you that what happened during last Saturday election was an internal disagreement amongst our people and that was only for the election of last week”.
He said, “As for your election, we assure you that everyone has decided to abandon their grievances and work for you. We have been meeting with youths across the entire North and that is what will happen” .
Earlier, Sen. Otu who assured the different groups of his resolve to do everything within his power to create harmonious working relationship with all political leaders and other stakeholders in the region, re-emphasized his desire to respect and acknowledge individual capacity of the party members.
Some of those who spoke at the stakeholders meeting include, elder statesman, Chief B.J Ekunke, former Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Fidelis Ugbo, foremost woman leader in the state and representative of the women, Chief Theresa Ezama amongst others.
