Godwin Jedy Agba
From: Diana okon-effiong, calabar
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River State has announce intention to bar one of the governorship aspirants, Mr. Godwin Jedy Agba, from seeking the governorship ticket of the party for the 2015 governorship election in the state.
Agba, who is currently, the General Manager Crude Oil Marketing of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is expected to retire in few weeks to seek the party’ s ticket to succeed incumbent Senator Liyel Imoke as governor of Cross River.
The party had zoned the guber position in 2015 to cross River North, where Agba hails from and Agba is widely believed to be one of the most formidable aspirants for the top job of the state from the stable of the PDP.
But it appears Agba, though from the Northern Senatorial District, is not in the good books of the PDP in the state.
Indication to this effect came to the fore at the weekend when the state party chairman, Ntufam John Okon , while addressing journalists to mark the two year anniversary of the current PDP executive committee in the state , declared that Agba is not a member of the PDP.
“There are party rules for the number for years. Anybody who wants to contest election can be registered in the party before running elections and as far as we know, Gody Agba has not registered with our party.
“Anybody can print the party card anywhere but carrying a card is not enough. You must be registered in the party register; let the person who prints his own card carry the card, but he is not a member of our party.”
Okon also ruled out the possibility of granting any waiver to any new member of the party to contest primaries for any elective office, saying though the policy was adopted by the PDP in 2011, it is unlikely to adopt the policy for new members who do not meet the constitutional requirements to contest its primaries.
Before the PDP announced its stance on the status of Agba in relation to the PDP, the spokesman of Agba’s governorship aspiration and immediate past Commissioner for Environment in the state, Dr. Sandy Onor, told journalists that Agba is a registered member of the PDP and possesses its genuine membership card.
Onor warned that any attempt to scheme Agba out of the governorship race on the platform of the PDP would lead to democratic crisis in the party.
Another protagonists of the Agba governorship aspiration, Barrister Venatius ikem , faulted the claim of the party chairman.
Ikem who was a onetime National Publicity Secretary of the PDP said, “We know that Jedy Agba is an authentic member of the PDP and duly registered in his ward.
“They have taken the ward registers to lodge in government house to affect illegalities; unfortunately, we have a photocopy of the register of Gody’s ward. Let them try anything and we will take it up with the party at the appropriate party level.”
However, the PDP chairman dismissed the threat to democratic crisis: “For anyone to cause so-called democratic crisis, the person should have resources of his own, the capacity, the following to back him.
“But, some of these people, we know them that they cannot even emerge as delegates from their wards, so how can they cause any crisis in the party.
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