Cross River State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Chris Etta has claimed that his party will never arm twist anybody to vote for its candidates, saying every candidate who emerged during the party’s primary was voted by members without any external influence on them.
Answering questions on the fall out of the party’s primaies during an interactive session with Journalists at the Earnest Etim Bassey Press center on Monday, Etta said his party operates a system where the people within a locality pick those who represent them.
According to him, APC will always demand for good governance and any candidate on its platform must rise up to that expectation.
“Everybody looks forward to good governance and our party demands good governance. That is why we expect all our candidates to work towards it. We don’t and cannot arm twist the people in any locality to vote for anybody. Those who sailed through the primaries were voted by our members without the party’s influence,” the chairman pointed out.
He however, dismissed insinuations that the fallout of the the primaries generated bad blood to the extent where it could affect the chances of the party as elections draw near next year.
Etta disclosed that the state working committee has constituted a reconciliation committee to address every grievance by members who lost the primaries, noting that the committee was working hard and are turning in their reports.
On the allegation by the immediate past state chairman of APC, Mr. Alphonsus Eba that the governor had earmaked his building for demolition because he decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chris Etta debunked the allegation, explaining that “80% of the houses marked for demolition are owned by APC members.”
