Cross River APC chapter chairman debunks news of vote of no confidence passed on him

The chapter chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Calabar Municipal Council Area of Cross River State, Mr. Emmanuel Mbora has described the news of his suspension from office by a faction of the party’s executive premised on a purported vote of no confidence passed on him as null and void.

Pastor Mfon, an aid to Mbora said while answering questions from a LENS Reporter on Wednesday, October 11th 2023 in Calabar that the news initially aired on HIT 95.9FM, a popular private radio station has been debunked by his principal because the perpetrators of the act did not follow the laid down rules of the party’s constitution. Mfon further revealed that there is no disagreement within the party to warrant such outburst since the pepetrators did not exhaust available internal mechanism channels of the party before going to the press.

On his part, an exco member of the APC, Calabar Municipal chapter and prominent politician who spoke on condition of anonymity said due process was not followed in the whole impeachment saga and wondered why the contending faction failed to present their misgiving to the state exco of the party for a fact-finding panel to be set-up to investigate the wrong doings leveled against him before deciding to pass a vote of no-confidence on the chairman.

It would be recalled that some traders in Ika-Ika-Oqua market had protested against the high-handed tactics of some market toll collectors whom they suspect are working for the embattled APC chapter chairman. Also, some aggrieved party members have frowned at the ploy by certain ward exco members in Calabar Municipal Local Government Area to arm-twist Emmanuel Mbora, funly called “political Swamp-Buggei” to resign and hand-over party machinery as he is recontesting the position in the next local government polls.

However, report has revealed that the ambition of the immediate past Local Government Chairman in Calabar Municipal Council to go for a second-term is the reason for the political impasse as a faction of the ward exco have said that the former council chairman’s zone in the rotation arrangement has produced an incumbent member of the State House of Assembly and a Commissioner in the State Executive Council and should allow other zones in the polity to produce the next Mayor of Calabar in the forth coming Local Government Council yet to be announced by the Bassey Otu led administration as the Heads of Administration (HOLGA) are place holders of the 18 LGAs in the State since dissolution of the immediate past councils in June 2023.

The Cross River State chapter of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) had called for the conduct of local government elections without further delay in a recent enlarged executive council meeting in Calabar to douse the tension created by lack of executive council chairmen and councilors at the third tier of government in the state.

Efforts by LENS to get the reaction of the chairman of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CRSIEC)) on the development was naught as at the time of filing this report.

By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)