Nigeria’s Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru has decided to contest for the Cross River State governorship election in 2023 on the platform of the People’s Redemption Party, PRP.
Usani, who served as a former chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, became the pioneer substantive chairman of the All Progressives Congress in 2013 until his appointment as Minister of the Federal Republic during the first tenure of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a brief telephone interview with Voice of Nigeria, the former Minister confirmed that he was going to contest for the governorship election on the PRP platform.
He said it has been his desire since 2003 when he contested for governorship alongside the former governor, Mr. Donald Duke.
According to him, his desire to contest for the election on the PRP platform was due to current political arrangement existing within the APC in Cross River State.
He stated: “We built up the All Progressives Congress and members of the APC are not my enemies. It is the constriction of the democratic space that has occasioned this expediency.”
It would be recalled that the Cross River State chapter of the APC adopted Senator Bassey Otu as the party’s consensus governorship candidate out of 17 aspirants, who expressed interest to for the ticket.
While some people conceded to the consensus agreement, aspirants such as former Senator John Owan Enoh and Mr. Chris Agara backed out of the arrangement.
The two aspirants were recently cleared by the national APC to contest for the ticket at a primary now scheduled to hold on May 26, 2022.
Confidence Okwuchi
