National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus has declared that Cross River State remains stronghold of the party.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has declared that Cross River State, Southern Nigeria, which the party has governed since the return of party politics in 1999, will remain the stronghold of the party beyond 2023 despite the defection of Governor Ben Ayade to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ayade had on May 20th defected to the APC highlighting the character attributes of President Muhammadu Buhari and the realisation that Cross River, which has been emasculated economically following the ceding of its oil wells, needed to be in sync with the party at the centre, as the main reasons for moving.
Secondus said the PDP would work to retain the confidence the people of Cross River State repose in the party and thus retain its dominance in the state.
Secondus disclosed this while inaugurating the newly set-up state Caretaker Committee of the party, which he constituted on the heels of Ayade’s defection.
Secondus Said: “The hard-working people of Cross River State, with rich intellectual base, deserve more than mere food-on-the table rhetoric; they deserve to be taught to fish – that is empowerment and manpower enhancement, rather than just being given cheap fish, which is no economic solution.”
Secondus who was welcomed by a mammoth crowd said Ayade merely impoverished rather than empowered the people.
He added that he was confident that from what he saw – the crowd of teeming party faithful – PDP will remain the ruling party in Cross River State come 2023.
He assured the PDP faithful in the state to remain resolute, as the party remains strong and solidly firm to ensure it retains the reins of affairs in the state.
Dignitaries at the programme were seven of Ayade’s commissioners who refused to follow him to APC, choosing to remain in PDP, and rather resigned from his cabinet after his defection. Eight members of the Cross River State House of Assembly, over 80 councillors and several of Ayade’s political appointees, all of who refused to defect with Ayade were also at the ceremony.
