IMOKE, MBU, OTHERS SCALE INEC HURDLE

By NBF News

Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, his deputy, Mr. Efiok Cobham, 11 National Assembly and 25 state assembly candidates have scaled the INEC hurdle in the state. Other candidates that made the list as governorship candidates included Senator Mathew Mbu of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Etubom Nya Asuquo of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), with Mike Ogar as his running mate.

The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) has Iheke Awa Solomon with no running mate yet while Dr. Theo Onyuku emerged as governorship candidate for the Labour party (LP) with Nagu Daniel Pius as running mate.

While the Alliance for Democracy (AD) has the only woman in the race, Mrs. Stella Eno, and Moses Agabi listed as the governorship candidate and running mate, the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) has Mr. Goddie Akpama as its governorship candidate.

As at press time, the name of ACN candidate's running mate was yet to be released.

Daily Sun investigations revealed that the party's leadership in the state was working round the clock to get a credible person from the Southern Senatorial district.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC, Mr. Mike Igini, had said in a telephone chat that the list of candidates for the National Assembly and the state House of Assembly would be pasted at the constituency offices of the electoral body.

At press time, however, the lists were yet to be forwarded to the INEC constituencies' offices in the 18 local government areas of the state. Sources close to INEC office in Calabar confided in Daily Sun that all PDP candidates, including incumbent Senators Ndoma-Egba, Bassey Ewah, John Eno Owan, and other new entrants such as Prof. Ben Ayade and Prince Bassey Otu made the list.

BORNO INEC RELEASE
In a related development, the PDP in the state has dispelled insinuations that its list of candidates for the National Assembly and state House of Assembly elections was rejected by INEC. The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Abu Eyo Abu, told journalists in his office along Murtala Mohammed Highway, Calabar, that all the names forwarded by the PDP were accepted and attended to by the INEC. adding 'the PDP has gotten the list from INEC so there was no cause for alarm; we are already working towards the general elctions.'