By Nelson Amaobi Osuala
Feb 06022016.Time 04:35pm
Negroidhaven wishes to bring to fore the present fracas in the Government of Prof. Ben Ayade of Cross River State.
There seems to be an internal silent battle which seems to have escalated to God knows what! As those in the corridors of power in cross river state are in what I may call a 'political combat'.
We are about to bring to you an open revelation of a war between the Governor of Cross river state ( prof. Ben Ayade) and his own 'brother' from Obudu who seats as the Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it is to Venatius Ikem that I refer.
This interview is culled from Thisday Newspapers. The weightiness of this interview and the comments, reactionary statements and the plea for help by Venatius Ikem is what has compelled me to publish it "raw" as it is except that we have meticulously structured it as a dialogue but the exact content is the same.
We affirm a disclaimer to the aftermath effect of the statements contained.
What follows is the dialogue between Venatius Ikem and some journalists. Femi Ogboonikan was a witness.
OUR ORDEAL IN CROSS RIVER STATE – By Venatius Ikem
Venatius Ikem says the life of opposition politicians are under threat in Cross River State.
The politician who recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) alleges that the Cross River State Government is behind the threat.
He spoke to journalists on the ordeal. Femi Ogboonikan was there.
Q: You alleged that the lives of opposition politicians are being threatened in Cross River state. Can you shed more light on this?
Ans : What is going on in Cross River State is rather unfortunate. Our governor lacks the maturity to accommodate dissenting views. Let us start from my case.
What I’m currently going through in my view is not only unimaginable but also unthinkable even under an authoritarian or military regime.
A lot is going on unreported in Cross River State; maybe because the state does not fall within the axis of media coverage or the news is being suppressed by the government and its agents with huge sums of tax payers’ money while pensions and salaries of some civil servants remain unpaid.
Now in my own matter, the governor who claims to be a lawyer recently decided to bring back to life a matter involving me and which we had conclusively and amicably settled with the other party in 2012.
He caused a magistrate court in the state to issue a bench warrant for my arrest. The process through which this bench warrant was procured is unknown in law, but all this desperation is to ensure my arrest and subsequent detention.
I have been reliably informed by insiders in his cabinet that he openly boasted that if he kills me, nothing will happen.
My offence for which he is bent on taking my life is that I sought to show to the world his double edged and untrustworthy nature by exposing a video showing him during the campaign visit of Dame Patience Jonathan to Ikom in 2015 abusing and calling President Muhammadu Buhari unprintable names.
You should also note that the very moment some political heavyweights in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) opted to decamp to the APC, the governor completely went berserk and lost all sense of rational thinking.
Q: So what is the governor’s motive?
Ans: Well your guess is as good as mine and that is to hold on to power at all cost.
For instance, all the so-called super projects he has been making so much noise about are barely on paper, none has commenced as we speak even as the President wasted his precious time to come and commission the so-called super highway.
From the garment factory, 260 km super highway, deep seaport, recruitment of green police and creation of thousands of jobs, none has materialized.
We are already in the last quarter of his first year in office, yet, there is nothing to show for Ayade’s talk.
Q: But the governor appears to be having ground support or controls political foot soldiers going by the huge number of his political appointees who are backing him.?
Ans: I love your choice of words particularly where you mentioned that the governor ‘appears to be having.’ The truth really is that, as we speak, even his own appointees are barely struggling to tolerate him.
Q: What is the plan behind your movement from PDP to APC?
Ans: Honestly I don’t think or rather believe there is an existing plan that I am aware of.
But what I can conjecture is that the current movement can only be the product of spontaneous reactions from the several years of political strangulation which forced virtually every citizen into the PDP whether they liked it or not.
The perception then was that once you are not counted among those in the party, you were finished politically. However, things are different today especially with the triumph of APC at the centre because this victory has opened my eyes and that of others and we prefer to exercise our freedom by decamping to a party of our choice rather than to allow ourselves to be held hostage and pretend that all is well in the PDP.
On a personal note, I know I nurse no other plan other than to join forces with those who mustered the courage to dare the PDP.
My desire is to join this new party and see how we of like minds can join hands to liberate our state from the current stranglehold of the PDP cabal which has eroded all the gains and giant strides the state recorded under Donald Duke.
Q: Is it possible that a PDP controlled state like Cross River State, nurtured by heavy weights like Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke will be wrested by the APC in 2019?
Ans: Why not? With due respect to Donald Duke, we all know that the PDP derailed long ago under the watch of Senator Liyel Imoke, his bosom friend. So the remnants or contraption we have left today is hardly recognized by those of us who formed the PDP in the state.
Although I appreciate his decision to stick rather than bailout of the sinking ship as its captain at this point and knowing the Duke very well, I’m sure he will not be happy and proud to see what the PDP has turned out to be in the state today.
Perhaps, Duke may be hoping that he would be able to change Ayade by offering him some credible advice. Let me forewarn Duke not to waste his time because Ayade that I know so well is an all knowing emperor who doesn’t take advice and thinks he knows more than every person alive.
I belief it is a complete waste of time and energy for anyone to try to advice the governor because he is on auto-pilot to failure and no one can change that course of history. In my view, if APC is well organized and prepared ahead, PDP can easily be dislodged from the state in 2019.
Drop your reactionary comments below please.
Nelson Amaobi Osuala is a Blogger and an Editor in Negroidhaven.
