The Chairman/Mayor of Calabar Municipality, Effefiong Eke, has refuted claims that he shut out the Paramount Ruler of Calabar Municipality, Ndidem Eta Bassey Eteta III, and other royal fathers from holding their meetings at the council secretariat NEGROIDHAVEN can report.
He made this disclosure on Wednesday when contacted over why he foiled an attempt made by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Cross River gubernatorial campaign to invade the Local Government Council without due authorisation on Wednesday.
According to him, for an event originally scheduled to hold on Wednesday at the Ndidem’s Palace Hall, turned out to attempt to hold at the Council secretariat without prior notification. For Effefiong, if the royal fathers decided against using their palace and wanted to PDP Cross River to meet with the Calabar Municipal Council of Chiefs at the Chamber of the traditional rulers, then they should apply to the Chairman of Council to get approval for their entry into the premises. But, this did not happen.
His words, ‘In any case, our royal father has his palace in town where the visitors should have been received. You and I know how politics is played in this state.
‘This isn’t the first time that someone had been denied access into a government facility. The royal father is also my father, but you see those whom he bestowed the responsibility on did not do well.
‘His aides ought to have gotten me informed on time and in a formal way either by a way of writing or prior to the arrival of the the PDP members whom the traditional rulers were playing host to.’
Effefiong further refuted claims that he chased a group of traditional rulers out of the council headquarters using security operatives yesterday.
He explained that, ‘I foiled the attempt made by the PDP in the state to invade the council secretariat.
‘It is unethical in a political period of this magnitude for an opposition party to make unapproved attempts to use the premises of the Calabar Municipal Council for their political activities without formal notification.
‘Prior to the attempt, the opposition party had failed to notify nor get any approval from the council authority regarding their visitation to the council secretariat.
‘In the eyes of the law, it is invasive and poses a security threat to the council leadership.’
EDITORIAL
This story amongst others are reviewed on Sparkling 92.3FM http://mixlr.com/sparkling923fm–2 and FAD 93.1FM. Again, opinions expressed on NegroidHaven are exclusively the author’s not NH’s.
