Cross River North community and groups, Movement for the Restoration of Good Governance (MFROGG) and Northern Senatorial District Youth Renaissance Assembly, (SSDYRA), have endorsed Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, for Senate 2023.
The groups said justice, equity and fairness in Cross River north demand that Jarigbe, who hails from Ogoja local government area, be allowed to continue in the Senate.
They added that for over five decades the Ogoja people have been marginalised in the political scheme of things even when it has served as the old Ogoja provincial headquarters which include the present Ebonyi state.
While endorsing Jarigbe for second term during a campaign tour of Wanihem, Wanikade, Wanokom, Igede, Mfuma Ntrigom and Ijiraga communities in Yala local government area, one of the community leaders, Chief Emmanuel Okoh, who spoke on behalf of other communities, said the incumbent Senator has impacted positively on the people especially in the area of rural roads, water supply, agricultural inputs and empowerment.
In a separate interview in Calabar at the weekend, the Coordinator of Movement for the Restoration of Good Governance (MFROGG) Comrade Emmanuel Agba, said all other four local government areas of Obanliku, Bekwarra, Obudu, and Yala have occupied the senate seat in the persons of late Sen. Joseph Wayas (1979-1983), Sen. Kanu Agabi (1999), Adede Musa (1999-2003), Greg Ngaji (2003-2011), Prof. Ben Ayade ( 2011-2015), and late Rose Oko (2015- 2019) with Sen. Jarigbe from Ogoja (2021-).
Agba added that from the foregoing statistics, it is clear that Ogoja has been marginalised and therefore Jarigbe should be allowed to continue in the Senate in line with the spirit of equity.
According to him, the north had given Governor Ben Ayade four years in the Senate and eight years as Governor of the state, adding that they had expected him to retire after thirteen years of political sojourn.
He expressed shock that Governor Ben Ayade is still warming up to return to the Senate, maintaining that “the current occupant is doing well and the people are solidly behind him. For now, we don’t have any vacancy in the Senate.”