By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The immediate past Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Cross River State, Alphonsus Eba, has resigned from the ruling party and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Eba, a lawyer and politician, previously served as Director-General of the Cross River State Due Process and Price Intelligence Bureau before emerging as APC chairman in the state.
Before his exit from the APC, Eba had been engulfed in a prolonged leadership crisis within the party in Cross River State.
In November 2025, the Forum of APC Local Government Chairmen and Secretaries demanded his resignation over allegations of high-handedness, financial mismanagement and failure to remit funds to party structures at the grassroots.
The aggrieved officials also accused him of sidelining party stakeholders and withholding stipends meant for ward and local government executives.
The crisis deepened in December 2025 when 30 out of 32 members of the party’s State Executive Committee passed a vote of no confidence in him and announced his removal as state chairman. The party subsequently appointed Ntufam Ekum Ojogu, the deputy chairman, as acting chairman.
Eba, however, rejected his removal, describing it as unconstitutional, politically motivated and “a joke taken too far.” He insisted that due process was not followed and accused some party leaders of plotting to force him out of office.
The former chairman thereafter approached the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, seeking protection against what he termed an unlawful attempt to remove him from office.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court subsequently granted an interim order restraining the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission and other parties from enforcing resolutions aimed at removing or sidelining him pending the hearing of the substantive suit.
Despite the court order, the APC later announced his expulsion from the party over his decision to institute legal action against the party without exhausting internal dispute resolution mechanisms as stipulated in the APC constitution.
Eba was among the key political allies of former Governor Ben Ayade who defected from the PDP to the APC in 2021 before emerging as chairman of the ruling party in the state later that year.
Eba announced his defection in a statement on Thursday, citing alleged intimidation, political repression and internal crises within the APC as reasons for his decision.
The former APC chairman said he had endured what he described as “unprovoked ill treatment” and humiliation from a system he and other party leaders worked hard to build.
He alleged that his suspension and eventual removal as APC chairman were carried out in defiance of a subsisting court order in his favour.
According to him, despite maintaining “a stoic and dignified silence” and withdrawing from party activities, forces within the party allegedly continued efforts to silence and sideline him politically.
Eba said, “I can no longer maintain my dignified silence in the face of the continuous subjugation and infractions on our freedom of expression, association and private life, exacerbated by intimidation, oppression and repression of people who hold contrary views against the system.
“I decided to withdraw my membership of APC and requested the delisting of my name from its hard copy and digital register on May 7, 2026.”
The former APC chairman disclosed that he had received invitations from three opposition political parties to join efforts aimed at strengthening opposition politics in the state.
He, however, announced his decision to return to the PDP, describing the move as part of a broader mission to rebuild the party across the state.
“From PDP I came, to PDP I have returned,” he declared.
Eba said the leadership crisis rocking the PDP at the national level had been resolved by the Supreme Court, adding that the task ahead was to rebuild the party structure across the 18 local government areas, 196 wards and 3,281 polling units in Cross River State.
“I have humbly agreed to be one of the beasts of burden and prolocutors towards the effectuation of this noble task,” he stated.
The former APC chairman also called on his supporters to align with what he described as a new political vision aimed at restoring democracy and good governance in the state.