Two outstanding chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State have faulted former governor, Senator Ben Ayade, over his latest remarks that the ruling social gathering had handled him unfairly regardless of his loyalty and resolution to steer the state into the APC in 2020.
In separate statements launched on Sunday, Hon. Bravo Gabriel Oluohu and former presidential aide, Okoi Obono-Obla, dismissed Ayade’s outburst as misplaced, saying he has solely himself accountable for his political setbacks since leaving workplace.
Oluohu, responding to the previous governor’s lamentation made on the Margaret Ekpo Worldwide Airport, Calabar, on Friday, described Ayade’s grievance as “self-inflicted.”
He mentioned the ex-governor weakened his personal standing throughout the APC when he selected to contest the social gathering’s 2022 presidential major regardless of figuring out he had slim possibilities of success.
“APC favoured him with a senatorial ticket in opposition to all odds regardless of inner resistance,” Oluohu mentioned. “However the voters rejected him on the polls, and that defeat was not the social gathering’s fault.”
The APC stalwart additional alleged that Ayade withheld marketing campaign funds in the course of the 2023 elections, an motion he claimed was reported to President Bola Tinubu, who considered it as an act of betrayal. “You’ll be able to’t eat your cake and have it,” he mentioned. “If there may be any blame, Senator Ayade ought to look inward.”
Equally, Obono-Obla took a swipe at Ayade’s repeated declare that he “socketed” Cross River State to the political centre, describing such a story as “bunkum, balderdash and despicable revisionism.”
Based on him, APC had lengthy established its roots within the state earlier than Ayade’s defection in 2020, crediting founding figures like Alex Irek, Ntufam Hilliard Etta, Cletus Obun, Bassey Iso, himselt and others for bringing the social gathering to the state as early as 2013.
“Anybody claiming to be the daddy of APC in Cross River is delusional,” Obono-Obla acknowledged. “By 2015, when President Buhari got here to energy, Cross River was already linked to the Centre with a number of key federal appointments.”
He recalled facilitating a 2015 go to by outstanding PDP leaders, together with Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, Prince Bassey Otu (now Governor), and Chief Anthony Ani (former Finance minister) to then President-elect Buhari, an effort that led to appointments and the siting of a federal polytechnic in Ugep.
Based on Obono-Obla, that was the true socketing, not mere defections.
Obono-Obla additionally accused Ayade of rewarding solely his loyalists after his defection, noting that those that constructed the APC in Cross River have been largely sidelined whereas newcomers secured elective and appointive positions each on the state and federal ranges.
The previous presidential aide urged Ayade to cease distorting historical past, insisting that the APC’s success in Cross River State was a collective wrestle, not the achievement of a single man.
