Women group endorses Esor's senatorial bid

Commander Solomon Esor (retd), Cross River Senatorial District SDP candidate

By Johnson Agbor, Ikom

The senatorial ambition of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, candidate for Cross River Central, Commander Solomon Esor (retd), has continued to receive a boost as group, under the aegis of Women in Politics, have endorsed him ahead of 2019.

The Women in Politics have also vowed to mobilise their votes and those of their supporters to ensure that Esor emerges at the polls.

Before now, Donald Duke, the Presidential candidate of SDP, has expressed absolute confidence in the ability of the businessman and international consultant, Commander Esor, to make a good senator,

According to the former governor of Cross River, Esor has all the credentials, the charisma and the capacity to represent the central, urging them to vote wisely by queuing behind their son, Esor, in 2019 senatorial contest.

Pledging to mobilise the people for the needed number of votes that will make him their senator come 2019 at a

Speaking shortly after a meeting held at Ikom recently, the leader of women politicians, Chief Ikwo Ujong Ibiang, hailed Esor’s public endorsement by former governor of the state and added that it is high time old Obubra produced the next senator for the senatorial district come 2019.

She maintained that it is fair and just thing as well as for the sake of posterity for the senate slot to go to old Obubra as the Senate seat belongs to everyone in the Central district of Cross River.

The woman politician explained that their pledge to support Esor was not only guided by the need to respect the zoning arrangement reached by stakeholders in the senatorial district at the return of democracy, but was based principally on their unflinching faith in the ability of the retired Navy commander to effectively represent the people of Cross River Central at the Senate, and carry everyone along unlike what had been the case.

Ujong said: “Donald Duke is our leader. His two-term as governor of the state was a golden-era for Cross River. We believe he has seen something great in Esor to be backing his senatorial ambition and we’ll join Duke in making sure that Commander Esor becomes our senator.

“It’s not common to see His Excellency Donald Duke publicly identify with the ambition of politicians. There must be something special about Esor for him to have gotten our former governor’s support and that’s one of the reasons we’ll vote for SDP all the way. They are fielding great presidential and senatorial candidates and we’re delighted about that.

“We’re happy that the people of old Obubra have put forward someone as qualified as Commander Esor to represent us at the Senate, therefore he is the one to get our votes in 2019. Esor always goes out of his way to promote the welfare of everyone in this district.

“With his personal resources and wide connections, he has empowered a lot of our people, making them to be financially self-reliant. Our senator-to-be knows that a lot of Cross River Central youths are graduates with many having master’s degree just as he has leveraged on this their education to make our sons and daughters not to rely on us their mothers or our husbands for survival.

“If Esor can do all these with his personal resources, we have no iota of doubt that when he gets to the Senate, he will do wonders. He has proven to us that he is not going to Abuja to enrich himself because he is already wealthy. He is the senator our people want and we will definitely vote for him during the 2019 election.

“All of us here are grassroots politicians, we feel the pulse of the people on a regular basis and can assure you that those from old Ikom, who are bent on retaining the Senate seat after having it for over 20 years, are just wasting their time. We cannot have an ably qualified Obubra person throw his hat in the ring and still vote for the same persons who have been there before with nothing to show.

“Old Ikom and old Obubra are sisters and brothers; our people believe that now is the turn of the Obubra people so we shouldn’t cultivate a feeling of bad-blood in the Central district of Cross River. It is in view of our desire to preserve the unity of our people that we have now taken it upon ourselves to ensure that an Obubra man, Solomon Esor of SDP wins in next year’s senatorial election.

“Come 2019, we are sending retired Navy commander Solomon Esor to represent us in the Senate. We will strongly rally our people to make this happen and with Governor Duke’s endorsement of his ambition, it will be quite easy to get Cross River Central to elect Esor as senator,” Ujong stated.