Chinelo Obogo

 Northern Cross River Youths Forum (NCRYF) has said it will support Prof. Edet Ikpi to emerge the next chief medical director (CMD) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UTCH).

In a statement, Coordinator of the group, Nicholas Egere, said NCRYF decided to support Ikpi because of his competence, integrity and experience as a professional. He also said it would be fair and just for the position of the CMD to be zoned to the Central senatorial district of the state, after CMDs from the Southern and Northern districts held the position in the past.

Egere said: “We know Ikpi, and we are confident of his integrity and competence drawn from his years of experience as a professional, and that is why we support him. Having said that, the peace and progress of Cross River State is built on a tripartite stand of respect, fairness and justice; and it is on this premise that strategic positions in the state are rotated among the three senatorial districts of the state.

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“Ben Ayade is governor today, because the whole state agreed that it was the turn of the North to produce a governor. The current vicechancellor of University of Calabar is benefitting from that same zoning arrangement and even the current CMD is there because all Cross Riverians agreed that it was the turn of the North to hold the position.

“Having considered the three successful nominees forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari, it is our hope that Prof. Ikpi, an eminently qualified Cross Riverian from the Central Senatorial zone, will be appointed as the next chief medical director of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, so  he would use his experience to improve the standard of the hospital.”

The group noted that other parts of the state had benefitted from the position, and the northern part, which is a present beneficiary of the process, cannot sit down and watch the process destroyed, when it was the same process that enabled it benefit from the position, ahead of the more connected and powerful zones in the state.