Months of political stalemate over who leads the Cross River state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may have been brought to an end as a former national publicity secretary of the party, Venatius Ikem, has been elected the state chairman of the party.
It is believed that the stalemate may have been responsible for the defection of Governor Ben Ayade to the APC. This is because the PDP National Assembly caucus members and some other key national leaders of the party had decided to take the structure of the party away from the governor over unresolved issues.
The state congress, which was earlier scheduled for March last year could not take place partly because of many litigations between the National Assembly caucus members who were supporting Ikem on one side and Mr Alphonsus Eba, who was seen as the governor’s anointed candidate, on the other. Incidentally, Eba had defected together with the governor to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the state congress election which held Saturday, chairman of the congress committee and member of the National Executive Committee, Oke Muo Aro, declared Ikem winner, saying he scored over 2,000 votes. Prior to the congress, other contestants had stepped down for Ikem to emerge unopposed.
