The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State has called on the State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade to fire all civil servants in the State not carrying the party’s membership card.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports newly elected chairman of the APC in Cross River, Mr Alphonsus Eba made the call at a media briefing in Calabar on Tuesday.
Eba, who is yet to be sworn into office, also asked Governor Ayade to fire all appointees who are yet to register with the APC.
Failing to clinch the chairmanship position of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) before his emergence as APC Chairman-elect, Eba argued that there was no way civil servants and appointees in the State would be receiving salaries without registering to be members of the party.
He said failure to register will result in mass sack while their positions will be filled by APC members, stressing that anyone who fails to register as a member of APC by December 31, 2021 would be relieved of his duty on January 1, 2022.
Citing article 9(5) of the APC constitution, which he said bars members from taking appointments with the government of other political parties, he said it was compulsory for civil servants to register and identify with the party in power.
A statement issued after the press conference, signed by Mr Erasmus Ekpang, the party’s State Publicity Secretary-elect quoted Eba as saying: “Non-members of our Party should not be given appointment in our Party in accordance with Article 9/5 of our Constitution.
“The ground of the welfarism we think is not to bitterate the kindness and humanitarian concern of the Governor.
“Here as a party, we want to make it known today, that all Heads of Government at Local Government level and at the State must follow the provision of our Constitution, with effect from 1st January, 2022, those appointees of Government that are yet to be registered and fully participate in activities of the Party shall cease to hold their respective offices.
“We therefore call on Local Government Chairmen, who today have over 20,000 appointees of five persons per polling units to the 3281 polling units and on the State Government payroll, we call on the Auditor-General to take note that the over seven thousand to eight thousand appointees of Government who are yet to be registered in APC must be relieved of their appointments henceforth”.