{"id":54623,"date":"2021-12-04T15:32:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T14:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp"},"modified":"2021-12-04T16:31:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T15:31:03","slug":"former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp","title":{"rendered":"Former APC guber running mate, Okon returns to PDP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A former governorship running mate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 election in Cross River State, Ekpo Okon has dumped the party.<\/p>\n

Okon is returning to PDP where he was state chairman up till 2015 when Senator Liyel Imoke was governor.<\/p>\n

He held sway as commissioner in two different ministries during the administration of ex-Governor Donald Duke.<\/p>\n

PDP chairman in the state, Venatius Ikem confirmed that they will hold formal reception for Okon and others on Monday at the party secretariat in Calabar.<\/p>\n

Ikem also confirmed that former APC stalwarts like former deputy speaker at the state House of Assembly, Dominic Akwa Edem, and former state law makers such as BOB from Biase LGA and Hon Wilson Ekpenyong of Odukpani will also be formally welcomed alongside others back to PDP.<\/p>\n

Ikem said: \u201cIt is the grace of God. Most of them are going to be coming back. We have a very long list of them that are formalising their returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Monday, we are going to roll out the red carpet and sound the drums to welcome back our members\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are speculations that Ekpo Okon who was one time state chairman of NEDC, wants to launch his 2023 governorship ambition on platform of his original party, PDP.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. A former governorship running mate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 election in Cross River State, Ekpo Okon has dumped the party. Okon is returning to PDP where he was state chairman up till 2015 when Senator Liyel Imoke was governor. He held sway as commissioner in two different ministries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":54622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,16,26],"tags":[1570,2140,34,254,1079,65],"class_list":["post-54623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-parties","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-apc","tag-nigeria","tag-okon","tag-pdp"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer APC guber running mate, Okon returns to PDP - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former governorship running mate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 election in Cross River State, Ekpo Okon ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former APC guber running mate, Okon returns to PDP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former governorship running mate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 election in Cross River State, Ekpo Okon ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-04T14:32:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-04T15:31:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61ab89938ce5a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"831\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Former APC guber running mate, Okon returns to PDP\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-04T14:32:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-04T15:31:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp\"},\"wordCount\":228,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61ab89938ce5a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"APC\",\"Nigeria\",\"Okon\",\"PDP\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Parties\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/former-apc-guber-running-mate-okon-returns-to-pdp\",\"name\":\"Former APC guber running mate, Okon returns to PDP - 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