By Christian Njoku
Calabar – The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) said it had waded into the crisis in the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Cross River which split the party into factions in the state.
Chairman of the council in the state, Mr Sunday Michael, made this known to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Calabar.
Michael said that already the council in the state had collated information on the issues and had written and forwarded a report to the National Chairman of APC, Mr Adams Oshiomhole.
He, however, said that at the state level, the council would set up a committee to work toward a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
“I was in Abuja on Friday to do a follow-up on the report we sent to the national body of the APC and I think there is an assurance that at the end of the day, the matter would be resolved amicably.
“Down here, because of the issues raised by the former chairman of IPAC in the state, who is also a member of APC, we will set up a committee to work for truce between the factions,” he said.
According to the chairman, Nigeria’s democracy is barely 20 years old and developing, so, we should not be fast in comparing it to the democracy of the most developed nations of the world.
“Our democracy is still growing; we are barely 20 years in this democratic process, and you will agree with me that what we had in 1999 is not the same thing we have today; there is an improvement.
“As a body, we would continue to talk; fortunately, IPAC is also an advisory body to INEC and we constantly talk to our political parties too.
“The main thing we have here is desperation, where we don’t allow the process to go on smoothly. I was impressed by what happened in Osun where Sen. Adeleke defeated his opponent with just seven votes.
“This shows that gradually the people are beginning to participate in the processes and the processes are becoming freer and fairer,” he said.
On vote-buying, the IPAC chairman said that any voter who sold his vote had sold his right. “So, you have no right to complain about roads, electricity, education and others.
“If you sell your vote, you have sold your right and whatever money you are given, use it to build roads, pay you children’s school fees, pay yourself salary and provide power for yourself for four years.
“If you elect someone who paid you N3,000 and got 300,000 votes, the first thing he does immediately he gets into power is do his calculations of how many people he gave N3,000 and starts recouping.
“In spite of poverty and hunger, vote the right person who has a conscience and will work for you; this time, the people won’t get N3, 000 for four years but a better life generally,” he said.
He added that people needed to understand that “once we elect anybody into an office, we must give the person free hand to operate.
“What IPAC does as a body of political parties whenever there is maladministration or misappropriation from the executives is that we go straight to the political party that produced that official and say talk to your member.
“Although IPAC tries to talk to the political party involved, it is everybody’s job; there is no need to be violent about it, just wait for four years and vote the person out.”
The APC in Cross River has in the past few months broken into factions, with one led by Mr John Etim and the other by Matthew Achigbe.