Chairman: Dissolution of Cross River PDP Exco Impossible

By Bassey Inyang In Calabar
As the crisis rocking the Cross River State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lingers, the party Chairman, Ntufam John Okon, has stated that it is impossible for the state executive committee of the party to be dissolved.
Okon who said this against the backdrop of speculation within the political circles that the state executive committee of the party had been dissolved, said those peddling the rumour were only dreaming.
The state party chairman who spoke with journalists at the weekend at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, shortly after he and other party members returned from Abuja, said: "I was at the PDP headquarters yesterday (on Friday) with the National Organising Secretary, as well as my secretary who is here with me, so, we are all complete, none of my chapter members have been tempered with. It is a wild dream, it is just a wild dream to think that you can dissolve our executive committee, it is a wild dream; it is not possible... " As the chairman of the state party, the issue of suspension and all other things are not true. You can see, I am still coming back to office." Okon stated that the leadership of the PDP enjoyed cordial working relationship with the national leadership of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Insisting that the ward congresses were manipulated, he said: "I don't think we are in any abnormal crisis. This is the period of nomination and various interests have to be balanced and those kinds of issues have to be represented. "One thing I want to assure you of is that there was fraud and by God's grace, it has been discovered that there was fraud and that is why we travelled to Abuja and so on.
So, it is very obvious there was fraud. "What we are saying is that we cannot do nomination in the wards and some people go to Abuja to change it. It is not going to be acceptable in this state, and we have told the national leadership that. That is all what I can tell you. "We had to sort out things in Abuja, and that is what I can tell you. We cannot do elections here in the state and people stay in Abuja and change it. You cannot come to the state here and do that. You know we are on ground.
That is the truth." The chairman, who indicated that it is possible to reunite the feuding PDP members in the state, however stated that peace can only return to the party if what he described as the fraudulent acts that trailed the wards congresses led on November 1 were rectified. He stated that even in the current state of disagreements among members, the leadership of the party remained very much in control of its affairs. "We will come back together, but in justice and fair play. We will come back together but not on fraud, not on blackmail. People cannot come and buy us, we are not a commodity, PDP will survive, I can assure you, and nobody can buy us." Speaking on the mission of the party leadership to Abuja, where they stayed for about one week, Okon said: "We have presented our facts.
The hope is that we are standing by the truth and all of us in the wards know who were elected. What we are saying is that we were elected and nobody can fraudulently change that. We will maintain that."

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