By Ike Uchechukwu, CALABAR

The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Cross River state, Alphonsus Eba Esq. has disclosed that the Party will not force any aspirant to agree on a consensus candidate especially in the gubernatorial election neither would it stop anyone from picking the nomination forms as the case may be.

Eba further disclosed that the Party was working towards pruning the number of Gicerniship aspirants which currently stands at 16 to four citing “economic factor” as reason for the move.

According to him, 50 million naira considering the times we are in is not small money and as a responsible Party it would protect the interest of every aspirant and guard against any form of waste but won’t stop anyone buying from purchasing forms or force anybody to accept a consesus candidate.

The APC state Chairman Esq made this position known yesterday while responding to questions from journalists during a media briefing at the APC party secretariat in Calabar yesterday.

Eba who spoke shortly after the party leadership Inaugurated a 7 -man Committee to drive the process of pruning number of aspirants to 4 from the 16, explained that out of the four, two would come from Central and two from the Southern Senatorial District of the state.

The committee that will help the party prune number of aspirants from sixteen to four, the Chairman revealed was headed by Former Senate leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma–Egba former senator alongside Sen.Florence Ita Giwa, High Chief Edem Duke amongst others.

Eba explained that by that arrangement, the committee was charged with the responsibility of selecting two aspirants from the south with another two from the central making them four so that they can purchase party’s expression of interest and nomination forms for the 2023 general elections which the APC has extended to Tuesday May 10,2022.

Eba said : The decision to prune the number of individuals aspiring for the seat of governor to four is to prevent party men from throwing away money, given the economic reality and the four would subsequently be presented to the state caucus who will take the final decision.

“The essence of this interaction is to make a corrigendum against all reports that was geared toward putting us in bad light.We are democrats. Our processes will remain very civil and democratic.

“We have gotten to the critical moment of our Party must provide the candidate that will fly our Party’s ticket, the primaries have been fixed. Sales of forms have also been extended Which gives us the opportunity to continue to build our consensus

“We are e ate appealing to our members because of the party has brought to the state,16 members are aspiring for seat of governor and we know that as the day goes by more aspirants would indicate interest
From our interactions with them so far, they are in tandem with the party to arrive at just one person.

“We thought it wise to choose men of integrity to prune the 16 down to 4 , two from central and two from south, then present same to the party The essence is to make a corrigendum, we are not in any way trying to cow aspirants against their will , whims and caprices neither are we trying to subvert the rights of any aspirant.

“Pruning down the aspirants won’t be by compulsion, because in any case that they refuse to back down, then the 16 will go into the field. We will never force anyone to agree on Consensus.

“It is only to make an appeal because of the harsh economic realities of our times that putting 50 million naira for governorship form and spending 10% of that on administrative charges even though it will make us comfortable is not the case, but we are concerned about the unity of our party.” Eba maintained.

He said that the process would pave way for the party to dialogue with the aspirant who will emerge and the ticket to be given on the basis that he can serve the Interest of all.

“We are not going to force anybody to agree with us. We will allow those who refused to listen to us to go ahead with their plan. The party has not zoned the governorship seat to any senatorial district.” Eba said.