C/River APC chairman Sir John Ochala delivers State of the Party address

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20 September 2019 
All Progressives Congress
Cross River State
Text of a Press Briefing by the State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Sir John Ochala on the state of the party.
Gentlemen,
It gives us great joy to address you today on a number of issues surrounding our party in the state.
Let me welcome you to our secretariat and with profound joy appreciate you for remaining as the ombudsman of the society.
There are certain issues of concern to our great party which we have decided to bring to public knowledge. I shall dwell on them one after the other thus:
1.PRINCE GODDY JEDY-AGBA’S APPOINTMENT AS MINISTER.
We appreciate Mr. President for the choice of Prince Goddy Jedy-Agba as Minister of the Federal Republic.
As a party, we call on members of the public to support the Honorable Minister to succeed in his assigned responsibility.
Prince Jedy-Agba demonstrated extraordinary performance during the ministerial screening exercise at the red chamber.
Today, we are witnesses to the fact that Prince Agba was eminently qualified to be Minister of the Federal Republic and we must thank God for that and President Muhammadu Buhari for his appointment.
Prince Agba is a member of our party who has certain character traits going for him. He is a man of extraordinary candor; cosmopolitan broadmindedness and quintessential personality who has over the years invested robustly in the greatness of Cross River state and beyond. We pray that God will continue to make the Honorable Minister a marvel even in the discharge of his official responsibilities to the glory of God.
2. TRIBUNALS VERDICTS:
It is often said that the judiciary is the bastion of hope for the common who seeks justice in Court. While we may not dismiss this assertion completely in the light of the recent verdicts of the Elections Petitions Tribunal that sat over our petitions, we wish to state that we still have confidence in the judiciary to deliver justice in the face of travesty.
Let me also say without equivocation that the verdicts of the tribunals were a complete rape or travesty of justice. The Supreme Court has always pointed out in several instances and judgments that exclusion remains an election matter, but for the tribunal to throw away our petitions on grounds of locus further confirms the travesty we are talking about. The verdicts were all fraught with error except that of Hon. Iwara who contested the House of Assembly seat for Abi State Constituency. The judgments were fraught with errors even as the tribunals approbated and reprobated. For us as a party, we find this as a grave danger to our fledgling democracy. Our party was robbed of victory both at the polls and at the tribunal unfortunately by a combined effort of the electoral umpire, security operatives, and the Peoples Democratic Party administration in the state. It was even sickening that the only hope of Justice, the Judiciary also joined the fray. We condemn the obnoxious verdicts in totality.
 I wish to reassure our teeming stakeholders and supporters that we are appealing against the obnoxious judgments just as we are upbeat that Justice will come our way.
3. THREAT TO HON (DR) ALEX EGBONA’S LIFE BY THE PDP: Gentlemen, recently we were told of how gun-wielding men stormed the residence of our only House of Representatives member, Hon. (Dr) Alex Egbona and shot sporadically with the intention of killing him. His younger brother was also attacked in similar circumstance all by men suspected to be hirelings or paid agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftains in the state which suggests that the matter is politically-motivated. This is vehemently condemned by us. On no account whatsoever should Dr. Egbona and his sibling be subjected to such traumatizing situation. We call on the law enforcement agencies to investigate the matter and bring perpetrators to book.
3. THE FUTURE OF APC IN CROSS RIVER STATE.
Many of our party men and women may have been disenchanted with the outcome of the elections litigations, but I would wish that we channel such disenchantment to the poor state of affairs of our state where governance has been reduced to a child’s play rather than with the state of the party at the moment. I believe that our party has carved a niche by representing the interest and mindset of most Cross River people who are tired of the retrogression imposed on us by the Peoples Democratic Party led administration in the state. This is one reason I will advice party members to be resolute, steadfast and never give up as the fulfillment of our collective destinies as a state lies solely in the hands of members through the gospel of change.
It is our firm believes that the future of our party and state holds a lot of promises notwithstanding our current challenges.
Let me also say with profound joy that gradually, the forces of retrogression that had hitherto held the progress of the party to ransom are giving way. The last dispensation witnessed series of clash of interest within the party but we thank God that as at today, peace and normalcy is returning.
Let me once again appreciate Mr. President for the appointments of our sons and daughters into positions of responsibility in the last dispensation, let me also thank our national leadership for always standing by us in times of difficulty and crisis.
I urge that under the next level dispensation of Mr. President, there should be recourse to rewarding loyalty, steadfastness and resoluteness of party men and women.
Thank you and God bless.
 
Sir John Ochala
State Chairman
September 18, 2019