Judex Okoro, Calabar
A House of Representatives member, Jarigbe Jarigbe, has kicked against the postponement of Cross River State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congress, saying the decision is not in the overall interest of the party.
Jarigbe, representing Ogoja/Yala federal constituency, dismissed insinuations in some quarters that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has a hand in the party’s crisis in Cross River. He said Wike is too pre-occupied with delivering democratic dividends to his people.
The PDP National Working Committee (NWC), in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, had postponed the state congress by one week after consultations with stakeholders.
Speaking during an interaction with journalists at the weekend in Calabar, he decried the fictionalisation in the party, which, according to him, is due to high handedness of the leadership of the party in the state.
Maintaining that the party would not be the same again if the situation persists, he said anyone who behaves as if the party is his personal enterprise will have the people revolting against such act as people cannot allow themselves to be arm twisted.
He said: “We don’t think the decision to postpone the congress was taken for good and in the overall interest of the party. The party is in disarray. We are not together in the PDP even in the Northern senatorial district. I don’t think PDP will be the party to beat in the senatorial by-election and even in 2023. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
“At a point, there was a decision to decimate a lot of us from the political line, So, if the ward, local government chapter executive and congress delegates’s lists are distorted, then that would be the total collapse of PDP in Cross River State. Besides, there will be legal issues. I say that on good authority.
“So, the choice is that of the leadership to make between winning the election and losing the election. If the PDP ticket is shielded and given to a particular faction out of sentiment, then we will be in trouble because there is a lot or resentment among our people,” he said.
Absolving Wike of crisis rocking Cross River, he said: “Wike is a man of honour. He is too busy adding value to the lives of his people in Rivers State to be enmeshed in what is going on in the state. I don’t see him as that kind of a person.”