It was a chaotic scene at the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) when Mary Ekpere-Eta, an aspirant for the position of national woman leader of the party, refused to withdraw from contesting.
Though Betta Edu, according to an ‘endorsement list’ of consensus candidates released earlier on Saturday, was adopted for the office of national woman leader, Ekpere-Eta, a former director-general of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), refused to step down.
She announced her decision in the early hours of Sunday during the ongoing APC convention in Abuja, causing confusion.
The adoption of Edu comes despite the controversy over whether she resigned her position as Cross River commissioner for health before seeking to contest as national woman leader.
Edu had, however, said she resigned as commissioner “weeks ago”.
At the convention which started on Saturday and continued into Sunday, aspirants took turns to announce their intentions to withdraw from contesting different positions.
While that was going on, Alphonsus Eba, APC chairman in Cross River, climbed the stage and announced that Ekpere-Eta had withdrawn from the contest.
But Ekpere-Eta appeared on the stage immediately afterwards and insisted that she was still in the race.
“I will never and cannot withdraw from the race,” she said