By Sylvia Akpan
After public criticism, a masked group under the umbrella of concerned All Progressive Congress (APC) in Cross River State Northern Senatorial district, has withdrawn it alleged budget padding against the senator and the member representing the senatorial district – Sen. Jarigbe Agom and Honorable Peter Akpanke, respectively.
The group had written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), seeking a probe and prosecution of Jarigbe and Akpanke on what the group also termed “abuse of office”. Sen. Jarigbe and Akpanke are both members of the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The criticism which was drawn from concerned indigenes of Cross River north, including Human Rights Activist, Citizen Agba Jalingo, who tagged the group as enemies who trek against development.
Citizen Jalingo, in an opinion accused the unmasked group as “the witches and wizards in Cross River North”, brought public applause.
“Very soon, we will do a roll call of all the political witches and wizards and evil human beings in Cross River North, who are bent on making sure that our place does not develop.
He said “after yours sincerely and our team went through a very painstaking task of extracting from the 2025 budget, and publishing the constituency projects of our National Assembly members from Cross River State, some bunch of entitled and failed rogues, have constituted themselves into a council of prebendal witches and wizards from Cross River North.”
Jalingo who has been clamoring for development and good governance in his senatorial district accused further: “Because, if it is not witchcraft, why will human beings, born from very honorable parents, continue to desire that our place should not grow, so they can remain the lords of manor?”
The faceless concerned APC northern stakeholders, who are referred as “client” to Abuja based law firm – Bernard E. Afu and Associates, said the withdrawal became necessary after public uproar and wise counsel.
The group expressed dissatisfaction of the name-calling of the group by Citizen Agba Jalingo in his write up, stating that it is not the best way to go about it.
The statement reads in parts: “On 29th March, 2025 Agba Jalingo published the petition of concerned APC Stakeholders of Cross River North Senatorial District and did a feature on the petition on every available social media platform. Pathological of Agba Jalingo, he threw caution to the wind in his criticism and went ahead and tagged the petitioners ‘the witches/wizards in Cross River North’.
“Agba Jalingo’s campaign slogan was to clearly indoctrinate Cross River North with a political catechism which parodied the petitioners as the axis of evil, anti-patriots of the Northern Cross River and who since the antonym of development is under-development, the writing of ‘the witches/wizards in Cross River North’, was solely responsible for the gross under-development of Cross River North and indeed under the weight of his venom must be crucified. He crossed the red line and went personal libeling and defaming the solicitor’s character. This issue of personal attacks and defamation of character will be address accordingly.
“In the social media stampede that greeted Agba Jalingo’s slogan, you can glean the massive fusillade of vitriolic attacks, threats to life, insults, name-calling and all manner of abuses that erupted on the social media reaching a feverish pace. This cannot be so, as one of the measurements of democracy is voice and accountability. Voice is indeed the freedom of expression and participation in governance which indeed the petitioners exercised and whether good or bad is entirely another subject matter.
“Understandably, Nigeria being ‘a paradise for maggots’ where public fund is unfairly distributed along parochial lines, whatever budgetary anomaly the petitioners may have complained about seems irrelevant compared with the quest for communal development (dividends of democracy). This is the crux of the matter. A call for budgetary accountability does not necessarily make the callers anti-development.
“While the typhoon of name-calling on the misused social media was yet raging, we have listened to wise counsel from our elders, senior citizens and friends not to join issues. This statement of retraction of the petition of concerned APC Stakeholders of Cross River North Senatorial District, against Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe and Hon. Peter Akpanke, on budgetary infractions, followed the acceptance of the wise counsel of elders to leave politics aside and focus on the need to re-strategise the development trajectory of Cross River North and the de-escalation of undesirable political tension for the overall interest of the people in the face of the regression of democratic privileges (advantages/dividends) and the excruciating hunger that is blanketing human development.
“Accordingly, our client have not only stepped-down the petition but will join hands with elected office holders at all levels especially Dist. Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe and Hon. Peter Akpanke to pursue and ensure the smooth implementation of all the projects. In the same vein, those who have resorted to the misused of the social media in the demonization and character destruction of others to settle cheap political scores, should be advised to exercise restrain as such dangerous and false narratives only fuel bitter acrimonies with unintended legal consequences.”