An aide to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State governor, Linus Obogo, has reacted to a call by the defeated governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Eyo Ekpo for the impeachment of the governor.
The former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under Donald Duke, Barr Eyo Ekpo had called for the impeachment of Governor Ayade.
But Obogo has described the call as absurd and ludicrous.
Reacting to Eyo Ekpo’s call in a statement to DAILY POST on Tuesday, Obogo who is the Deputy Chief Press Secretary to the Governor said, “The defeated SDP governorship candidate’s call is borne out of interminable frustration, having misapplied his life savings on a wild goose chase of becoming a governor in the March governorship election.”
He described Ekpo’s call as “an outright hate speech against Governor Ayade. The call is totally anti-democratic and an attempt to pitch a responsible organ of government such as the House of Assembly against a responsible leadership of another organ of government.”
Insisting that Eyo Ekpo should not remind the people of Cross River of the ignoble role he played that culminated in reducing the state to an orphan among the comity of states in Nigeria, Obogo added, “Characters like Eyo Ekpo are indicators of how generously forgiving Cross Riverians are, otherwise, people like him should not be walking the street, much else expressing views on how the state should be run.
“It would be recalled that under a government he served, Bakassi Peninsular was ceded to Cameroon. It was still under their watch, that Cross River amassed the most humongous debt than any state in Nigeria, which this current government is not only grappling to offset but has made it rather impossible to access any loan facility from the financial institution.”
Continuing, the Deputy Chief Press Secretary quipped: “Were it not in a society like ours where we forget and forgive so easily, People like Ekpo who as the Attorney-General looked the other way while the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalist’s (NUJ) land was expropriated by individuals for the building of castles should be answering questions as to the propriety or otherwise of the action of displacing NUJ from its property.”
While urging the SDP governorship candidate to let sleeping dog lie, as he continues to lick the wounds of his misadventure in the March governorship election, Obogo said: “I want to sincerely advise Ekpo to stop wallowing in fantastic speculation and desist from vending falsehood in the name of commenting on matters of the state.
“We all remember how he and the administration he served in, helped only themselves instead of Cross Riverians. While the people may have forgiven him for the vicarious role he played in plunging the state into an unremitting debt overhang and the attendant slavery, his haunting past has no doubt refused to go away as it continues to stalk him like an incubus.”
According to Obogo, his past is still haunting him. “an indication that history has not forgiven him, the outcome of his failed governorship bid was all too clear that he was politically a spent force who had nothing to offer the state. That is the more reason Ekpo should ask himself why everyone who pretended to be with him in the run-up to the election suddenly abandoned him like a leper. For a man who is part of the ugly narrative of the past, Ekpo clearly lacks the moral rectitude to pontificate on matters of state.
“He owes the people of Bakassi an apology, he owes the state an explanation for its economic miasma. That is why he should rather bury his head in shame than seeking to hug the spotlight in the name of playing the advocate for the state.”
Insisting that Ayade is focused on delivering the goods for the good people of Cross River State, Obogo further assured: “No amount of distraction will sway Ayade from continuing on his sworn declaration to develop the state through aggressive industrialization. It is an absolute commitment he owes Cross Riverians, and he is not about to waver or dither on that.”
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