Cross River: APC support group alleges plot by defeated candidate to destabilize Speaker

By Sixtus Uket (Calabar)
An All Progressives Congress (APC) Support Group in Cross River State, Jones Advocacy Group (JAG) has alleged a plot by one of the failed contenders to the Central Senatorial seat, Mrs. Mary Ekpere-Ette, to truncate and distract the effort of the Senatorial Candidate of the party, Rt. Hon. Eteng Jonah Williams, by heading to the court the second time.
The Director General, Jones Advocacy Group, Oboma Ubangha Ubi and other Senior officials of the group made this known in a statement issued in Calabar, the Cross River Capital.
The group also alleged that it had other credible intelligence that a plot was being hatched by Mary Ekpere to disorganize the smooth campaigns of the distinguished Speaker.
“Mary Ekpere is trying so hard to stop Rt. Hon. Eteng Jonah Williams ahead of the 2023 general elections because of her ambition to become a Senator. Ekpere-Ette is pushing so hard to de-market Williams before some top APC leaders in order to make her way to the red chambers,” the statement alleged.
The group called on her “to desist from her antics or face the full wrath of the people of Cross River Central who are already embittered by her evil plot against the speaker.
“Eteng Jonah is divinely indomitable, waste your hatred from now till tomorrow, he remains unstoppable, monitor him from now till next year, his winning is sacrosanct.
“If you cannot win them join them, Eteng is like a moving wind, you cannot stop him,” the statement added.
Ubangha noted that Mrs. Ekpere-Ette was defeated twice by the Speaker of Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Williams after an Abuja High Court nullified the May, 2022 party primaries held in Ikom.
Our reporter gathered that she had approached the court to question the validity of the victory of the Speaker in the May, 2022 APC Central Senatorial Primaries held in Ikom and the Court ordered fresh primaries to be conducted by the party.
The party later conducted the fresh primaries in December 2022, and again, Rt Hon. Williams emerged victorious.
“Not satisfied by the outcome, Mrs. Ekpere-Ette, who also participated in the fresh primaries ordered by the court, again has gone to the court seeking for the disqualification of the APC Central Senatorial Candidate even when the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had reconciled all aggrieved parties in the state during a Town Hall meeting held last December in Calabar.
“Recall that, Mary Ekpere contested in 2022 for the position of Ikom/Boki Federal Constituency which her candidature was questioned on the basis that she lacked capacity, competence, character and credibility; the people of Ikom/Boki resolved not to vote for a candidate with no blue footprint and one who has no contact to the people. She lost shamefully.
“As her desperation for power exacerbated, Ekpere trade boarded her way in 2012 to contest for the position of the Governor of Cross River State under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Mary was brutally defeated.
“A video of how Mary Ekpere fought the State APC Chairman, Barr. Alphonsus Eba on national television is clear evidence of her desperation for power and disrespect for the party after a consensus agreement was reached by the party’s leadership to present Dr. Betta Edu as the APC National Women Leader, Mary insisted and contested but disgracefully got defeated by Dr. Betta Edu,” the group explained.