The South- South Zone of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the newly re-deployed Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Cross River State, Mr. Sylvester Okey, and has appealed to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to repost him to another State if there must be free, fair and transparent election in the state.
National Vice-Chairman South-South of APC, Mr. Hilliard Eta who made the appeal in a chat with newsmen in Calabar on Sunday said the APC does not have absolute confidence in the credibility of the new REC because of his past antecedents and as such demand that he should be changed if there must be transparent elections in Cross River.
Alleging that the new REC is a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the APC leader said, “We dare to say and want Mr. Sylvester Okey to take us to court by saying that he is a card-carrying member of PDP and we don’t want him in our state except the President and the INEC Chairman are trying to tell us that they have posted a PDP person to come and do their bidding”
He however appealed to the INEC to redeploy Okey to another State adding that, “Mr. Okey should be posted to Borno or Kebbi where he will go and contend with the progressives forces because we are not strong enough for the kind of rigging that Mr. Okey is known for, so we want him out of our state. We have competent Nigerians that can fill those positions in Cross River State. We would not accept any other thing”
The APC helmsman also called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to post the Presiding Judge of Calabar Appeal Court, Justice Abdullahi Adamu out of Cross River State allegedly refusing to set up an appeal panel to look into an electoral matter brought before him by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2012.
Eta said, “I will go further to say that we don’t also want Justice Abdulahi Adamu who incidentally is the presiding Judge of Calabar Appeal Court today because our matters will go again to his table and the last time in 2012 he denied Cross Riverians opportunity of appeal in the CAN. He was at that time the acting President of the appeal court and he blatantly and deliberately refused to set up the appeal panel for our matter in Court.
“So there is no way we can have confidence in such a man, so we are appealing to the National Judicial Council to please post Justice Abdulahi Adamu out of Cross River State.”
He also discountenanced claims in some quarters that the APC Presidential Candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari would pursue an Islamic agenda when elected into office as President of Nigeria adding that, “Buhari had been a military Head of State in Nigeria and had the power to make a decree and it will become a law in Nigeria. At that time, he did not make any attempt to Islamize Nigeria neither did he Islamize Nigeria. Is it now you need the National Assembly to put a stamp of approval on what you do that he will now come and Islamize Nigeria?
“The PDP has absolutely no narrative to go to our people with, so the only way is to demonize our Presidential Candidate, they can’t politick on the question of education, they cannot campaign on the issue of security, they cannot campaign on the issue of corruption, they cannot campaign on the issue of social well-being of Nigerians, so the only thing is let us attack them.
“They have been in power for 16 years, so it is incumbent on them to speak on education, let them speak on job and wealth creation, the economy and security of the country, let them talk about those ones and leave us with issues that have no bearing on the daily lives of Nigerians.”
By
Ubong Anthony
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