The Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade on Monday debunked reports making the round that he
His Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Ita told DAILY POST, in a telephone conversation, that his principal only travelled out of the state on the third week of February, pointing out that Ayade physically attended the burial of the state’s former Deputy Governor, which took place at the second week of February.
A concerned citizen of the state, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, was earlier reported to have said: “Since Governor Ben Ayade travelled out of the country nearly ten weeks ago without transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, that he is proceeding on vacation or he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office to enable the Deputy Governor, Professor Ivara Esu assume office as Acting Governor, there can be no doubt the Cross River State has no leader presently.
“This is so because the Deputy Governor, Professor Esu cannot rightly assume the position of Acting Governor since Governor Ayade failed to invoked Section 190 subsection 1 of the Constitution, by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House of Assembly that he would be going on leave or vacation or he would be otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office.”
In his reaction, Ita said: “The guy is lying because as at second week of February when we buried the former Deputy Governor, the Governor was there and it was a public function. Speaking about the person blowing the ”whistle,”he said, ”he is an APC man, his name is Obon Obla. How can a governor hand over to his younger brother? When he had all his official engagements, was it the younger brother that went there or the deputy Governor? How can he hand over to his younger brother? I am the Chief Press Secretary; I don’t have any relationship with the Governor’s younger brother.”
The Governor’s aide further dismissed Obono-Obla as a well-known blackmailer who is only seeking cheap publicity, adding that the Governor can only write the Speaker to declare his deputy as acting Governor in an event that he is going on medical leave or annual vacation. He revealed that although the Governor is not yet back, he is being expected on Tuesday, March 15.
While putting the record straight, Ita said: “Number one, the Governor traveled third week of February. Two is that the Governor is on a working visit. He travelled with some of his commissioners on this working visit which included even being in Canada for the mining conference that just ended at the instance of the Canadian government because we have a lot of solid minerals in the state.
“They (the Canadian government) said, look, come for this conference. It is the biggest mining conference in the world where you get investors; all you need to do is to convince them and they will bring in their money and technology.
“Three is that the governor is required to write to the Speaker to declare the deputy governor (as acting Governor) only on two instances: if he is proceeding on annual leave or he is on medical leave, not working visit. The Deputy Governor has been handling state functions.”
Comments