Former Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development and an aspirant for Cross River Central All Progressives Congress, APC Senatorial district ticket in the just concluded election, Mary Ekpere-Eta has refuted claims that she shunned the reconciliatory move initiated by President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ekpere-Eta in a statement by Njan Ndoma, Director, Media and Publicity of her campaign organisation said that publications in a section of the media accusing her of disobeying the President-elect were sponsored blackmail by her rival.
Recall that after an Abuja High Court ordered APC to conduct a fresh primary for Cross River Central, Tinubu, during a town hall meeting in Calabar, openly appealed to Ekpere-Eta and all aggrieved aspirants who were in court to withdraw their cases in the interest of the party.
While Sen. John Owan Enoh who was challenging the candidacy of the APC Governorship candidate and Governor-elect, Sen. Bassey Otu backed out of the legal tussle, the battle for the central ticket continued, leading supporters of the candidate and Senator-elect, Rt. Hon. Eteng Jones Williams to accuse Ekpere-Eta of disobeying Tinubu.
Reacting to the development, Ekpere-Eta said that at the time Tinubu intervened, Eteng, and not her was in court and ought to have withdrawn the case in line with the reconciliatory move but did not.
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“At the time the President-elect, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu intervened on the 20th of December, She was not in court. Eteng was the only one in court. He ought to have withdrawn the case in line with the appeal by the National Leader but did not. Six days after the intervention, that’s the 26th of December precisely, he transmitted the record of appeal to the court of appeal surreptitiously. He filed his appellant brief on the 28th of December, eight days after the National Leader’s intervention.
On noticing his surreptitious move, Barr. Ekpere-Eta filed a petition against the rerun which he participated against the judgement of the High Court because he rejected the settlement window opened by the National Leader. Unlike what other candidates did, after the intervention, Eteng never followed up, he never called me or members of my team. He was busy pursuing the case in court secretly for whatever objective than using the media to smear the character of Ekpere-Eta”, the statement reads in part.
Explaining why she’s in Supreme Court for the same matter, the statement added that “because he wasn’t interested in the reconciliatory move by the national leader, he refused to serve her the court processes until the day of the hearing which foreclosed her from filing her brief. Despite this, all his grounds for appeal were struck out except one inconsequential one that he got a favourable judgement. Seeing that he had no interest in peace, She proceeded to Supreme Court to challenge the Appeal Court judgement”.
While calling on the leadership of the party and the general public to disregard every accusation of disobedience labelled against her, she emphasized that “let it be known that it was Eteng who disobeyed and ignored the appeal by the National Leader, not Ekpere-Eta as being peddled by his media men. At the time of the intervention, Ekpere-Eta was never in court and therefore had no matter to withdraw”.
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