By Patrick Obia
The State Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Cross River State, Barrister Alphonsus Eba has said that the mistakes made in Governor Ben Ayade’s Government will not repeat themselves in the administration of incoming Governor-elect Senator Bassey Otu.
Reports have it that Governor Ayade is not happy with some of his lofty appointees whom he feels betrayed him during the Cross River North Senatorial election that he lost to incumbent Sen. Jarigbe Agom.
Since the loss of the senatorial seat, Mr. Ayade has then gone on firing sprees of appointees believed to have worked for opposition parties.
Eba while fielding questions from the Press said it is a perfidy and also, those calling for his resignation are wasting their time and he will not step down because he has worked for it.
“We will support and stand by the governor to succeed but we will not allow the mistakes that we made under Governor Ayade to repeat themselves. In his kindness, he tolerated a lot of things and that is why people abused it and at the end, it was not a good one for us; appointees of the government will go to the field, collect money and work against a man who has kept food on their table for 8 years? You are not from the north (Cross River North) so you will not understand how it feels.”
He averred that he will not give in to pressure to resign, positing that they are blackmailers and anti-party agents who will soon go in for it if found wanting.
His words: “For anybody that is alleged to have indulged in anti-party practice, you have the opportunity to go and clear your name. No amount of blackmails and things against my name can ever distract my focus; my eyes are on the ball and we are focused on the tribunal, forming a government and I have declared ‘monkey work, monkey chop, baboon no work, baboon no chop’.
“Let the whole Cross Riverians from PDP, Labour Party, and APC come with a protest here, they cannot shake me from this seat because I’m doing what is right. I know the procedures for the removal of a State Chairman, but they can not approach it and do not have the capacity.
“I am not a local breed, I’m a national and international breed and so people should know that the business of putting APC united to continue the governance of a State is not a tea party; I have abandoned everything in my life – I kept away from my family, abandoned my LLA program at the risk of my health working more than 20 hours a day and you think now we have succeeded some funny characters will come and play around? No, no, it is not possible, I’m not a coward. I have not been, not at 47-48 years old will I be.”