Cross River State governor Bassey Otu has charged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win more states in the South-South for the region to align with the federal government.
He made the call during the party’s zonal executives meeting held in Calabar, the state capital.
Otu said, “It is important to muster more and more states to the ruling APC so that our zone would be politically active within the APC family.
“It is about endearing the people to the powerful pedigree of the actualisation of our hope through passionate empathy for changing livelihood and leveraging the environment for a better today and greater tomorrow.”
The governor, who is also the coordinator of the APC in the South-South geopolitical zone, declared that Edo State cannot escape the onslaught with the winning strategy encapsulated in the Renewed Hope agenda of the President Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.
He said, “If we did it in Imo State gubernatorial polls, we can replicate same in Edo State.”
The governor called on the APC to consider the South-South for critical appointments to strengthen the party in the region as well as reward deserving members.
Otu, who commended Tinubu on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, said the development would strengthen socioeconomic ties between the South West and South-South regions.
The meeting was attended by the APC national vice chairman (South-South), Dr Victor Gaidom, minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo, former deputy Senate president, Omo Agege, Cross River State deputy governor, Dr Peter Odey, former Senate majority leader, Senator Ndoma Egba, APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, Cross River State APC chairman, Barrister Alphonsus Eba, among others.
In his remarks, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, thanked God for putting the South-South in the political scheme of things in the present dispensation.
He said President Tinubu holds the zone dearly in his administration, especially with the commencement of work on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project.
Akpabio said the zonal meeting was an opportunity for the APC stakeholders in the South-South to congratulate themselves on their immense contribution to the emergence of the Tinubu-led administration, attributing the return of the Senate Presidency to the zone, 45 years after Joseph Wayas, to commitment and conviction to turn things around for the nation.
“Forty-five years after Senator Joseph Wayas, it has pleased God to have me, a South-Southerner to be Senate President.
“My being here should be an impetus for the region to further be linked to the centre,” he stated.
Akpabio also hailed Cross River governor, Senator Bassey Otu for his impactful leadership in his first year in office, and leading the charge for a new Cross River State, describing his strides as a show of direction in leadership.
He encouraged party faithful in the South-South to continue to trust the present administration, work hard to take over the entire zone, while expressing optimism that in no distant time, APC would have a second governor in the South-South – after the party’s imminent victory at the forthcoming Edo State gubernatorial election.
