Calabar, Cross River State – Barrister Venatius Ikem has threatened legal action over his alleged removal as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River by the State Executive Committee (SEC), saying the process was faulty and unconstitutional.
Explaining that his purported removal is political, Ikem said he has done his best to reposition the party and reconcile some internal wranglings aimed at bringing peace and unity.
Fielding questions from newsmen in Calabar at the weekend, he described the allegations against him put forward by the State Executive Committee (SEC) as not only baseless but an attempt made to portray him as a misfit for the office he has held for years.
Recall that the State Executive Committee had on Friday removed Ikem from office as the chairman of the party, alleging high handiness and ineptitude, amongst others.
In his place, the SEC announced Chief Austin Edibe, who was the party’s Vice Chairman in the Northern Senatorial District of the state, as Ikem’s replacement.
Reacting to the development, Ikem said: “Like they always say, you give a dog a bad name when you want to hang it. The truth is that to the best of my knowledge, I run one of the most efficient excos of our party.
“We meet regularly, and I think in the last quarter or so, we have had two stakeholders meetings. We have our regular State Committee meetings and the stakeholders meetings.
“Secondly, I think there must be issues to discuss; whenever there are issues and programmes, I am always there; we just had a party revalidation exercise this year, and we had the party congresses this year, and we performed well.
“In the last local government elections, we stood up strongly, and I am very proud of our outing despite the outcome given the circumstances.
“To me, I know, and everybody knows, that I am doing my best to run the party within the context we find ourselves, so talking about not holding meetings or ineptitude leadership is completely out of the question.
“One of the problems I see in PDP is the hangover of being in government, we have been in government for so long that many people have never experienced being out of government.
“They believe that things should be the way they used to be when we held sway in the government house.
“The drastic change to being an opposition party is not being properly absorbed by our members, so their expectations are usually not what is possible in terms of availability of welfare, availability of funds for this and that but even given that we have done very well.
“The national assembly members have been very supportive; they have programmes and even some stipends to support us monthly.”
On the allegation of misappropriation of funds, Ikem, who said he ran a cashless policy, said the books are there for everyone to see.
Ikem alleged that the insecurity of a sitting Senator was behind his alleged removal, adding, “My crime is that I am supporting Hon. Peter Akpanke against him (Senator). I don’t know whether anybody is contesting against him in 2027.
“He used to say Peter wanted to contest against him, but Peter has said he is not contesting against him so I’m supporting Peter against him. Those are the underlying political issues.
“These are just cover-ups to say they have a valid reason. The real reason is political that I should not be supporting Peter.
“For me, the same support I give to him is the same support all my elected officials are entitled to. It does not matter the positions they hold so I cannot support him as a senator more than I am supporting other members.”
