Cross River 2019: Ayade on hot seat over second term ambition

• State PDP petitions Secondus, NWC over Governor’s alliance with APC

The second term ambition of Governor Benedict Ayade of Cross River State has been under serious threat as prominent leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the aegis of PDP Support Group has been unrelenting on stopping the governor from seeking re-election in 2019.

National Daily gathered that the PDP Support Group, accordingly, sent a petition to PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and the National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja, accusing Governor  Ayade of breach of trust, corrupt enrichment, poor leadership and covert alliance with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Thus, they demanded that national leadership to desist from giving the Cross River Governor the party’s ticket for the 2019 governorship election in the state.

National Coordinator of the PDP Support Group, Chief Edet Essien Asoquo, in the petition titled: “Breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and conversion of state resources to personal use…” protested Ayade has been purportedly involved in indiscriminate and reckless misuse of the state’s treasury, adopting fake MoUs and white-elephant projects (Super Highway, Deep Sea Port, etc.) to siphon cash. The PDP national leadership was, therefore, cautioned against giving the party’s governorship ticket to Ayade in 2019.

The petition reads: “We are a political group operating in Cross River State. Our basic objective is to mobilize grassroots support for the Peoples Democratic Party, fight corruption, entrench party discipline and internal mechanism and promote good governance at the state level.

“As a political group desirous of overwhelming victory for our great party, we have decided to join you in thus very important and onerous task to bring sanity to the party, expose and rid our party of inept leadership, corruption and avaricious governance who have caused and will continue to cause socio-economic malaise to our dear state if left unchecked.

“It is against this premise that we are poised to write this petition to intimate you of the wanton, indiscriminate and reckless abuse of the treasury of Cross River State by the Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency, Prof. Benedict Ayade.

“Mr. Chairman, the facts as presented herein are not cosmetic, cooked or fabricated, they are as true and correct as the facts can be supported by verifiable evidence.

“Therefore, we implore you to carefully read this petition to enable you understand that our action is not a political witch-hunt but rather actuated by a patriotic zeal to further entrench good governance and accountability in the state.

“Thus it will be victory for impurity and the opposition should you fail to investigate our petition and bring His Excellency Senator (Prof) Benedict Ayade and Cohort to order. We say so out of fear that that failure to do so swiftly may terribly affect the victory of the party ahead of 2019 elections.

“As a result of a myriad of bitter complaints by concern citizens of the state, party men/women of critical stakeholders in Cross River State concerning Governor Benedict Ayade and in line with our mandate, we decided to conduct some informal enquiries into how some of the policies, programmes and finances of the state are been managed by the Governor.

“Preliminary finding from our team of independent investigators revealed glaring cases of breach of trust, unlawful enrichment, deceptive administration, lies, propaganda, land grabbing and wanton conversion of public funds by Gov. Ayade Ben and the Co-Governor.

“While our investigations revealed sleaze and several cases of abuse of office, fake Memorandum of Understanding to deceive the government etc. Our petition is predicated on our findings in respect of the following;

A. (i) Governor Ben Ayade is the only sitting governor in the history of politics in Cross River State that the anti-graft agency, the Economic and financial crimes commission has formally opened a file investigation his administration.

(ii) Governor Ben Ayade is the only governor in the country with a Co-Governor. The Co-governor who is his younger brother (Frank Ayade) physically and openly participates in the day-to-day running of the affairs of our state. This is an anomaly.

(iii) This Co-governor who is a regular visitor to the Abuja office of the EFCC has been caught severally with state funds by the Anti-Graft body. Recently he was arrested at an Abuja branch of Eco Bank Nigeria by the Economic & Financial Crime Commission.

B. All his so called Special Purpose Vehicle (SPVS) otherwise called signature projects are white elephant projects which are avenues for defrauding and siphoning public funds.

– Super Highway
– Deep Sea Port
– Cali pharm
– Cal Air
– Independent Power Plant
– Calabar Virgin City
– Rice City
– Banana City
– Teachers Continuous Training City.
– Calas Vegas City in Southern Cross River State.
– Nostradam City in Northern Cross River State.
– Centicort City in Central Cross River State.
– Calabar Virgin City in Calabar.
– 1500 Housing Units for the Bakassi Returnees.
– Cross River Poultry Farm with 150,000 capacity hatchery.
– Synthetic Wood Processing Plant constructed by Chinese. (A Bill was enacted to back this up). It is one of the achievements of John Gaul CRHoA.
– Wood Processing Plant. Part of the above bill also covered this project in order to protect our environment from illegal wood poachers. How do you feed a wood processing plant without woods (That is, if you protect the woods)?
– Ayade Calabar South Waterfront Resort.
– Ayade flouting restaurant (Calabar South).
– Cally Air.
– Cross River Fishing Trolleys and Vessels (This project was approved and public bidders process accomplished with fanfare and media hype).
– Ayade pork/beef process plant.
– Cross River State Footprint Institute of carpentry and masonry.
– Odukpani Bridge with a spaghetti flyover.
– OgojaUltra Modern Rice Mill that will pump out 150,000 tonnes of rice per annum.
– Cross River State chocolate factory.
– Hydro thermal electricity project in Agbokim waterfalls in Ikom.

“These projects have all failed as none has taken off fully over two years now. The governor is still deluding Cross Riverians with empty promises, signing MOU’s without practicalising it and still building castles in the air. The deep sea port and super highway are now a mirage and the so-called new cities are latest joke of the century. The power plant claimed to have been completed has generated no supple megawatt at least to cushion the power outage within the metropolis.

“The rice city is a fraudulent fake rice factory in the state powered through smuggled rice from neighboring countries. He is using same landed property as a façade to re-bag and rebrand smuggled rice after himself to deceive the entire people of the state.

“Governor Ayade numerous inconsistent wonder projects is setting Cross River State in consistent fraudulent bad picture.

“On the Super Highway, Gov. Ayade hardheartedly displaced more 200,000 indigenous people from their ancestral homes, damaging the largest bio-diversity forest in the world. This forest provides tourism value with resulting revenue of more than 8million Dollars a year to Cross River State, he is rather stealing and logging their timber trees.

“His claim to open new cities in Cross River State is a naked lie. His anonymous 71 tender bids documentation for the purported super Highway and deep seaport is missing in the States records.

C. (i) Recently, the governor boasted giving the party NWC the sum of N30m, saying the party is cheap and with N200m he can get them to do his bidding. And if he can’t the Co-governor, frank Ayade can do it in a jiffy.

(ii) The governor commands no respect in the State at all. Even secondary school children make mockery of him with all kinds of names because he is a liar, a scam, a fraudster, a con artist and highly deceptive.

(iii) The “BIGGEST PRAYER” of APC right now is for our party to give him the ticket because they know he is going to be a very candidate to defeat due to low approval rating in the state.

(iv) To forestall his failure at the polls, he has gone ahead to sign a secret pact with the APC to immediately decamp after his term inauguration.

(v) Through his nocturnal meetings with the APC, he has brought Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and the minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi to the State for the same purpose, his constant romance and fraternity with the APC is a matter of concern and worry.

(vi) He recently signed into law the state 2018 budget of 1.3 Trillion Naira into law and tagged it: Budget of Kinetic Crystallization” with a clause that 10% of the budget projects amounting to 130Billion Naira will be done through direct labour. This is another channel to siphon lean resources as the said amount will be going to him and the brother because we do not have any due process in the award of contracts in the state. His blood brother, Frank Ayade who is the Co-governor is the only known state contractor found everywhere mostly around the fake and nonexistent signature projects.

(vii) Governor Ben Ayade administration has made business so terrible and miserable for investors in the state due to his illegal sharp practices. As a result most blue chip companies like Global communications, Film House Cinema, Pepsi, Quarrying Factories etc. have all relocated.

(viii) The Ayade Benedict government in the state has not attracted any international donor project to the state due to his lack of leadership focus, financial recklessness and poor managerial acumen. Cross River State is the only state that is far behind on MDG/SDG.

D. (i) The level of fraud in the state by the governor and his brother is so alarming and phenomenal. We have never had it so bad, nauseating and sleazing since the creation of the state. Recently, his close friend and former Managing Director, Cross River Water Board Corporation Mr. Igile returned a whooping sum of Sixty Million Naira he looted back to an international agency.

(ii) A man that has neither sustained any of his projects nor completed his predecessors project should not be given another opportunity. The former governor, Senator LiyeI Imoke’s Projects like the school of Nursing accreditation project institute of Teaching & Mgt. (ITM) Ugep’, Indoor Stadium Complex Calabar Int’l Conference Centre (CICC’) are all totally abandoned and unattended to.

(iii) Cross Riverians are just being fooled and we hope we have a credible alternative within the party because if Ayade comes back for another four years Cross River is doomed. Since Imoke left, nothing has happened to the Calabar International Conference Centre (CICC), Songhai farm is dead, city and rural roads have been ignored, no rural electrification projects and many others.

E.(i) Permit me here to quote one fearless critic of the Governor in an open birthday message to him. “I commemorate with you and your family on this auspicious occasion as you add a year. As you cut the cakes, may you reflect on the things you truly need to adhere as a Governor. May you never be remembered as a man who came and made a caricature of himself and governance. May your people and other tribes never be christened failures because of you. And may your children never grow to hear tales of the wobbling nature and failures that has characterized their father’s leadership.”

(ii)Also, let me quote one Rev. Fr. Evaristus Bassey in an article, “Indeed a people deserve the Kind of leader that would be committed and consistent with development. After Former Governor Donald Duke and his Tourism transforming agenda which was a masterpiece; Senator Imoke consolidated on the tourism road map but Ayade has not just abandoned that road map but also rubbished it. For Ayade, if it’s not big and gigantic, it is not done because he wants to do big things he ends up doing nothing meaningful or substantial”. He went further to state “I think it is time to put sentiments aside and reflect on who can move Cross River State forward. The argument of allowing Ayade to continue (in 2019) so that Cross River North could have its complete eight years is like saying we should continue under Buhari for another four years so that the North would finish its turn of 8years. So, zoning is more important than good governance?

F. (i) Cross Riverians are not enthusiastic about a 2nd term for incumbent Governor Ben Ayade at all. A second term ticket for Ayade will spell doom for the party in the State. The collapse of all infrastructure including Primary Healthcare and notably water supply, poor road, maintenance in Calabar Metropolis, incessant communal clashes as a result of poverty and decaying standards of living shows clearly that Governor Ben Ayade’s inability to balance continuity and political stability with the need for social, political and economic growth. We are totally disenchanted with his person his government, and his continuity.

(ii) All his appointee party stakeholders and elder statesmen from the hills of Obanliku to the Creeks of Bakassi are totally fed up with Governor Ayade leadership style and tenure. We have never had it so bad and terrible like this before. The likes of General Tony Ukpo (Lt), Chief Linus Okom, Ambassador Ekpang Obi Odu, Chief J.I.C Igbe, Senator Joseph Wayas, Chief Anthony Ani, Chief Kanu Godwin Agabi, Senator Florence ItaGuwa, Senator Bassey Otu, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, Chief Etim Nyong and others for numerous to mention are all disenchanted with the government of Governor Ben Ayade.

(iii) The stakeholders and elder statesmen are always complained that they have not seen a leader in the state that is so hated, ridiculed and abused while in office. Community leaders, religious leaders, students bodies, organized labour, and business leaders are all asking God why he punished Cross River State with Prof. Ben Ayade because even in the bible, it is clearly stated that when the righteous rules, the people rejoice.

(iv) A man popularly called the wrecker/havoc/destroyer/clown by the opposition party just cannot be treated with another term in office. Like an honorable member with the Cross River State House of Assembly said, “The time Governor Ben Ayade is done in power, the State would left with nothing to govern”.

v) “Governor Ayade must understand that he runs a fractured State and he needs to consult ore, talk less, act/do more and be more proactive, realistically prudent in spending our scarce resources. We need him to work and work he must. Let the state be as clean and peaceful under Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke. Maintain roads, pot holes and build new roads, enhance and promote and year round tourism Calabar (not only December) and also enhance and open up our educational and agricultural Sector”. (Robert Ani).

OUR PRAYERS

On the strength of the above, we respectfully and humbly request the National Chairman, His Excellency Prince Uche Secondus’ to:

(i) Invite the relevant government agencies to investigate Governor Ayade Benedict and his younger brother Mr. Frank Ayade and all other State functionaries and companies involved in or connected with the corruption, criminal breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and criminal diversion and conversion of public funds in relation to the above-mentioned and other fraudulent transactions.

(ii) Cross Riverians are not enthusiastic about a Second term for incumbent Governor Ayade Benedict, hence fielding him as a candidate in the 2019 general elections will be tantamount to our collective victory. The entire stakeholders, party men, women and elders are totally disenchanted with his style of administration and are overwhelmingly ready to campaign sensitize and mobilize the electorates against his candidacy.

(iii) Governor Ben Ayade has offended the very people that voted him into power by personalizing the affairs of governance and destroying the party ahead of the 2019 general elections. We the Cross River State PDP support group disassociate ourselves from the ignoble policies and programmes of the Governor Ayade-led administration which are viewed as anti-people anti-party unpopular and retrogressive. We “say No” to his 2nd term ambition.

(iv) We have agreed to wrestle back the party from one man and give it back to the people to redirect, reconnect and reposition for victory ahead of the 2019 general elections. The actions and inactions of the Ayade led administration which has brought untold hardship to the entire people of Cross River State are not contained in the manifesto of the PDP, but remains solely the decisions of the Senator Ben Ayade…”