By Our Correspondent
The Cross River State Government says it has uncovered a plot by those it described as reactionary elements to blackmail the state governor, Senator Ben Ayade and cast doubts about the activities of his administration, however well intentioned.
A statement by the Special Assistant on Media and Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Christian Ita, on Sunday said these elements who have made blackmail their stock in trade, have in their febrile effort in the last five months tried to distract Governor Ayade, essentially on social media, but all to no avail.
Ita said “It would be recalled that shortly after Governor Ayade unveiled his signature projects, aimed at economically repositioning the state, this conclave of blackmailers took on the governor, describing them as unrealisable. But a few months down the line, with construction work ongoing at the project sites, they have begun shopping for fresh issues to tar or muddy these laudable initiatives.”
Specifically, Ita added that “the antics of this group took an all time low, especially when supposedly private text messages between the governor and IPAC chairman in the state was mischievously caused to be published in the media by the IPAC chairman.”
According to Ayade’s spokesperson, “If the intention was to embarrass the governor, it failed woefully, as it raises issues of ethics and morality on how a private telephone conversation could be maliciously and despicably made an item in the media, all in a desperate bid to malign the governor.”
The statement regretted that “politics in Cross River has assumed a dark and depreciatory hue with opposition obsessed with scoring cheap political points rather than rally behind the governor to see to the realisation of the many lofty and people-oriented projects.”
Continuing, the statement further added that “it is, however, ironic that while they cannot accuse the governor of paucity of ideas, the group is hell bent on engaging in conspiracies aimed at undermining every single project or policy of government.”
Ita said Governor Ayade is not distracted by the handiwork of these mischief makers, but has remained focused on delivering on his various developmental programs of which Cross Riverians are very appreciative of.
It will be recalled that text messages allegedly exchanged in a private communication between the governor and Mr. Anthomy Akpama, the Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC degenerated into a fuse between the duo and were later leaked to the media for publication by the IPAC Chairman.