APC Chief Berates Gov Ayade Over Delayed LG Polls

BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – The All Progressive Congress (APC) has slammed Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade over his deliberate delay in conducting Local Government Council Elections  in the state since  November  2016 when the tenure of the last democratically elected councils’ administration came to an end.

The State chapter of APC has therefore threatened to take all necessary legal steps to check what it described as ‘Governor Ayade’s reign of impunity in Cross River’.

According to the Party; the “flimsy excuse of lack of funds to conduct elections nine months after the tenure expiration of Councils’ executives is not tenable and unacceptable to the people of the State.”

“More so, this is against the backdrop that there are no noticeable development projects in the  state to justify the huge funds so far collected by the state government from the  federal purse as bail-out funds and monthly allocations on behalf of the 18 Local Government Councils”, the party said.

Stating the Party’s position in Calabar, the Cross River capital, an APC chieftain, Chief Aloysious Ene, who spoke on recent developments in the state, accused Governor Ayade of being insensitive and hypocritical given the amount of funds that have accrued to Cross River from the federation  account since November 2016.

Chief Ene cited his Calabar South Local Government Area as a clear example of the administration’s insincerity and hypocrisy to the people, querying that there is no single development project carried out by the State government in the area to justify the mandate given to the governor by the people.

Drawing attention to the on-going road construction efforts by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the area, Chief Ene said it is quite regrettable that the State Government cannot compliment such gesture by initiating similar development projects to cushion the effect of current harsh economic conditions and suffering of the citizens.

The former Calabar South Local Government Council boss however urged Governor Ayade to learn from antecedents and the experiences of his predecessors, even as he posited that; “if the federal Government had refused  to  conduct the 2015 general elections, would Prof Ayade have been  governor  today?” 

“Working to throw away the same ladder he used to climb to where he is today so that others will not catch up with him has its implications”, he quipped, adding that “it is important to learn from history.”

Expressing his anger further, Chief Ene stated that more appalling is the fact that Governor Ayade’s party, the ‘PDP is still in tatters and as such any of its elected officials like Gov. Ayade can afford to misbehave and abuse democratic processes because the Party’s so-called national hierarchy lacks the moral rectitude to caution or possibly whip their erring officials into line.’

On his reasons for quitting PDP, Ene blamed former Governor Liyel Imoke whom he accused of not being a man of his words over his refusal to abide by the promise he made to the people of southern Senatorial District.

“The gentleman’s arrangement was to the effect that since it was glaring to the eyes of many that Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu had performed creditably well at the National Assembly, there was every reason to encourage and support his return to office for second tenure as Senator.

“But unfortunately, Governor Imoke, against all known democratic norms, single-handedly change the rules of the  game midway into the contest in favour of his preferred candidate. This angered most of us who are given to play politics of principle and not that of pledging and swinging support among candidates without recourse to existing agreements”, he said.