By Jonathan Ugbal: Government House Correspondent
Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade Saturday evening departed Calabar for Abuja alongside the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Honorable John Gaul Lebo.
As at press time, it was unclear what their trip to Abuja was about with principal aides lip sealed or at loss concerning the itinerary for the trip, a consistent theme in the Ayade’s administration.
The governor had earlier in the day spent over three hours at the Thai-Africa rice city project along the Goodluck Jonathan bypass inspecting the project which will serve as a seedling research and development center with a full fledged institute, hostel and other social facilities according to preliminary designs sighted by CrossRiverWatch.
He later departed for the Governor’s lodge, where Government House Correspondents learnt he was scheduled to travel to Abuja on a 2:45 PM flight which was delayed till Saturday evening at about 5:00PM.
As expected, only his principal security aides joined him in the trip to Abuja with correspondents and others returning back to the lodge before eventually dispersing.
A source told CrossRiverWatch on phone that the Governor has since arrived Abuja.
Also, it is unclear when he will return having spent about 4 months without travelling outside the country.
The Speaker had once lamented his inability to prevent the Governor from travelling on a weekly radio program; “The Dialogue With Agba Jalingo”.