Angry Youths Pull Down, Burn Gershom Bassey’s Posters In Calabar

By Aplefe Ojong

Angry youths in Ward 12, Calabar South Local Government of Cross River State, on Saturday, February 7, 2015, torn off and burned the posters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer for the Cross River State Southern Senatorial District for the upper Chambers in the re-scheduled general election for March 28th, and April 11, 2015.

CrossRiverWatch gathered that the youths of Ward 12 became furious after Gershom Bassey sent messages the previous day to all the traditional rulers in the said ward informing them that he was coming to see them between 8.00am-1000 a.m of Saturday, but failed to show up.

Sources say one Maurice Ekong, one of the aides to Chief Gershom Bassey had called the Muris and Ndabos of the area to inform and gather their subjects to meet with the PDP senatorial candidate where he will unfold his manifesto to them, but that all the natural rulers and their subjects waited for their visitor from 9.00am to 1.30pm, but to no avail, until the time they dispersed back to their various abodes.

We equally learnt that while the Chiefs and the people were waiting they decided to again put a call to the said Maurice Ekong who, we equally gathered is from the ward, and he assured them that his boss was coming to see them unfailingly that day, but that promise was not fulfilled as the Efik born politician never showed up throughout that day and even the next day.

This development, our source explained, “was the reason the youths became so furious wondering why the PDP senatorial flag bearer kept those old men and women and the youths and prevented them from going to work for their daily bread and that of their families, and at the end never showed up, and without any courtesy to state why he could not come or an apology.

“Based on this, the youths of the area became angry and torn off every of his poster and even pulled off the large poster in a bill board situated at the Mount Zion Road by Orok Orok, and burned them.”

CrossRiverWatch equally gathered that two weeks ago, on a Friday, the same Chief Gershom Bassey sent and gathered the same chiefs, elders, youths and other PDP party faithfuls in ward 12, and at the end of the day, he failed to turn up, but later sent what our source described as “Peanuts” to the people, and that he has again repeated the same thing.

As at the time our reporter received the information and got to the area, the people had already dispersed and the posters also burnt by the rampaging youths, but we took a photograph of the bill board which before the incident was a large beautiful poster of Chief Gershom Bassey.