Ayade, PDP Bicker over N19bn FG Refund to Cross River

By Bassey Inyang

The Cross River State chapter of the People Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the state Governor, Ben Ayade, to tell the people of the state what his administration plans to do with about N19 billion refund it received recently from the federal government.

Meanwhile, Ayade, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Ita, has denied setting aside N2 billion to lure PDP members to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he recently defected to.The PDP said the N19 billion was refunded to the state government for work done on federal roads in the state by previous administrations of former Governors Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke.

Making the demand yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, at a press briefing, the Chairman of the state PDP Caretaker Committee, Mr. Efiok Cobham, said the call was informed by credible information at its disposal that the Ayade-led APC government in the state was capable of using N2 billion out of the about N19 billion to lure some of its political appointees, who are still in the PDP, to decamp to the APC, his new party.

The PDP said: “Ayade can readily expeand N2 billion to fund his defection to the APC because he has ready cash from the almost N19 billion recently paid to the state as refund for federal road maintenance undertaken by the PDP administrations of Governors Donald Duke and Llyel Imoke.

“Ayade has refused to declare this money to the people of Cross River State, and is frittering it away on purposes other than the common good of the people.

“We call on Ayade to declare this N19 billion, which is the single largest revenue flow to the state since the creation of the state, to apply same on infrastructure like rural and urban roads network and water, which benefit the common man. We are all embarrassed that the governor inherited the best public water supply systems developed by the PDP administrations across the state, and has allowed them to all fall into disrepair today. Our people have gone back to streams and wells for water.”

The PDP accused the APC government of luring members of Ayade’s former party to decamp, saying: “Upon decamping to APC, Ayade declared pompously that in Cross River State, once the governor moves, everyone follows. To his consternation and embarrassment, nobody followed him, and he is now adopting unconstitutional methods to compel his cabinet and appointees, and other public office holders to follow him to the APC against their choice of remaining in the PDP.”

Meanwhile, Ayade, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Ita, has described the allegation as false.

He said: “While still reeling from Ayade’s masterstroke, the almost emptied PDP has been busy shopping for lies to confuse it sagging coterie of followers and at the same time flattering to deceive.

“It is against this backdrop that PDP’s claim that the governor paid N2 billion to people to defect is as ludicrous as the claim that nobody has moved with the governor to APC.

“PDP, for all they care, can go on consoling itself that nobody has moved, but it’s clear that more than 90 percent of the members of the state House Assembly, including the Speaker, are already in the APC.”