About a month ago, the three   major political parties contending for elective positions in Cross River State signed an undertaking in the presence of the state Police Commissioner,   Mr Henry Fadairo to be peaceful as they go about their electioneering campaign.

By Emmanuel Una

The three parties are the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, which is dominant in the state, the All Progressive Congress, APC, with a large followership and the new entrant, Labour Party LP. All three pledged to be of good of good behaviour and  agreed to go about their campaigns free of rancor and violence and were all taken seriously by the security agencies and the civil society organisations that observed the exercise.

However,  developments in the state since the signing indicates  that the parties are so deeply involved in pursuing their own interests and doing everything willy-nilly  to outdo one another effectively making the peace accord not worth more than the ink and piece of  paper  it was written on.

The uncompromising stance of some candidates and their supporters has led to frequent squabbles, tearing of banners of candidates in opposing parties, gun attacks and machete battles which have made a mockery of the entire peace accord.

Gov Imoke of Cross River

Gun attacks and machete battles

The squabbles are more intense in the Central and Southern Senatorial Districts of the state  where supporters  of Hon Bassey Ewa and Dr Alex Egbona contending for the House of Representatives seat for the Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency and in Calabar South where incumbent Senator, Prince Bassey Otu who decamped from the PDP to take up the Labour Party ticket  against Chief Gershom Bassey, the Chairman of the Cross River State Water Board  who won the PDP nomination are squared in a fight of  wit for the  Southern Senatorial District  seat

The supporters of the two parties, PDP and LP, who had in the recent past soldiered together in the same political family do not now see eye-to-eye leading to regular squabbles. From the tearing of posters they progressed to attacks on each other, leaving a tale of wounds and injuries. The attacks have left the political climate in the state tense culminating which the reported assassination attempt on Bassey three  weeks ago.

Last Monday, three person were reportedly killed in Ekori, Yakurr Local Government Area  following a clash between supporters of the PDP and the Labour Party in the area.

The crisis according to an eyewitness started when the Labour Party candidate Dr Alex Egbona, who is the immediate past Chief of Staff to Senator Liyel Imoke was stopped in his tracks during a scheduled campaign visit to Ekori, the base of Ewa who is in his third term in the House of Representatives.

The action reportedly led to a face off and subsequently a fight which went on throughout the night and the early hours of Tuesday leading to a number of fatal casualties.

Many people in the state are not entirely surprised with the political turn of events in the state which in the past has always laid claim to being the most peaceful state in the country.

The internal dissensions within the PDP following the party primaries is generally blamed for the development that has led to the manifestation of true opposition in the once politically harmonious state.

Among the new political platforms are the APC and Labour which have now gathered an unusual momentum.

People like Senator Bassey Otu, the Senator representing the Southern Senatorial district of the state who is hugely popular,  the cerebral and eloquent Dr Sandy Onor,  the Director General of the Gody Agba Campaign Organisation, Hon Dominic Aqua Edem, former representative of the state in the NDDC, Dr Julius Okputu, former governorship aspirant and now Senate candidate, Dr Alex Egbona, former Chief of Staff to Senator Imoke, Hon Ngim Okpo member of the Cross River State House of Assembly and a whole lot of others simply decided to take their fate in their own hands  and voted with their feet to carry on with the race even when their new party, Labour did not have a governorship candidate.

These former PDP members who have a vast knowledge of the antics and abilities of the party in securing victory at the poll are not giving a breathing space even as the Chairman of the party, Ntufam Jonhn  Okon said there is still room for them in the big umbrella should they want to come back.