…Insists On Rotational Governorship
By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, received former Managing Director of Tinapa and industrialist, Architect Bassey Eyo Ndem and several other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, including former Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Chief Orok Otu Duke, and Mr. Edem Ekong, who defected from the PDP to the APC on Thursday.
Speaking during the defection ceremony, which took place at the premises of Management Development Institute, MDI, Calabar, the Cross River State chief executive stated that he believes so much in the sustenance of the governorship rotational principle, which has been in place since the return of democracy in 1999.
The Southern senatorial district of the state is staking a claim to the Cross River governorship seat in 2023, as the remaining two districts – Central and North – have had their turns.
Ayade described the PDP, which he quitted in May as a hemorrhaging party, stressing that he has the moral obligation to ensure that Cross Riverians do not remain there.
He said, “It is against this background that I will keep to my words. 2023 is a harbinger of peace, equity and justice, so that every one of us will have a sense of equity and sense of balance to maintain and sustain our politics. This will enable everybody to know his turn at every given time.”
The governor averred that with the exit of the defectors, the PDP in the state was finished and empty.
He added, “When I turned my back and look at Cross River – from Obanliku to Bakassi – I wonder where the opposition is coming from. The PDP in Cross River is finished, it is now an empty shell, APC is in total control.
“Anybody who wants us to remain in opposition does not wish us well. We have socketed to the centre and APC has come to stay in Cross River. Our state is better off with the APC.
“The array of political juggernauts joining us in APC today were the men who made PDP thick. Today, they have joined us in the APC, so where is the PDP in Cross River? PDP is finished.”
In his remarks, Architect Ndem, who spoke on behalf of the defectors, after receiving the APC symbol (bundle of broom), stated that the decision to move from the PDP to APC is for equity and integrity, “because His Excellency, at several fora, stood on the principle of rotation and by rotation, he simply means turn by turn.
“And I trust that from everything I have seen so far, His Excellency, the governor, will continue to uphold the ethics which has made the Southern senatorial district stand by him, even in his moment of greatest trial.”
Ndem, who is a former Commissioner for Lands during the Donald Duke administration, pledged to give in his very best to ensure that the party returns to Government House after the tenure of the incumbent governor winds to an end, promising to do everything within his reach to ensure that the governor completes his tenure strongly.
