Cross River State governor, Senator Bassey Otu, has challenged his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, to grab more states in the South South, so the region could align with the federal government.
The governor threw the challenge during the APC South-South zonal executives meeting held at the Metropolitan Hotel, Calabar, weekend.
"It is important to muster more and more states to the ruling APC so that our zone would be politically warm within the APC family.
"It is about endearing the people to the powerful pedigree of the actualization of our hope through passionate empathy for changing livelihood and leveraging the environment for a better today and greater tomorrow," Otu said.
The governor, who is also the coordinator of the APC in the South-South geopolitical zone, affirmed that Edo State could not escape the onslaught, with the winning strategy encapsulated in the 'Renewed Hope' agenda of the Tinubu-led administration.
"If we did it in Imo State gubernatorial polls, we can replicate same in Edo State," the governor affirmed.
He called on the ruling APC to consider the South-South for critical appointments as, according to him, only this will strengthen the party in the region as well as reward deserving party faithful.
Commending the president on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, Governor Otu averred that such development would strengthen socio-economic ties between South West and South-South regions of the country.
At the exco zonal meeting were the party's National Vice Chairman, South South, Dr. Victor Gaidom, Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo, former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo Agege, Cross River State deputy governor, Dr. Peter Odey, former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Ndoma Egba, APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, and Cross River State APC Chairman, Barrister Alphonsus Eba, among others.
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In his remarks, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, thanked God for putting the South-South in the political scheme of things in the present dispensation, adding that President Bola Tinubu held the zone dearly in his administration, especially with the commencement of work on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project.
Akpabio said the zonal meeting was an opportunity for the APC stakeholders in the South-South to congratulate themselves on their immense contribution to the emergence of the Tinubu-led administration, attributing the return of the Senate Presidency to the zone, 45 years after Joseph Wayas, to commitment and conviction to turn things around for the nation.
"Forty-five years after Senator Joseph Wayas, it has pleased God to have me, a South-Southerner to be Senate President.
"My being here should be an impetus for the region to further be linked to the centre," Akpabio stated."He also hailed Cross River governor, Senator Bassey Otu, for his impactful leadership in his first year in office.
In his remarks, Dr. Victor Giadom, the South-South zonal vice chairman, stated that the essence of the meeting was to mobilize leadership at various levels to support the federal government's renewed hope agenda, as well as brainstorm ahead of the Edo State governorship election, and the APC's eventual takeover of the entire zone.
