Barrister Alphonsus Eba, the chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State, revealed that the immediate past governor of the state, Prof. Ben Ayade, made significant sacrifices in order for his successor, Senator Bassey Otu, to win the governorship. As a result, Otu cannot be accused of witchcraft against Ayade.

 

He seriously cautioned, saying, “nobody should say that the present governor is witch-hunting the former governor.”

 

The APC chairman made this caution in an interview with journalists in Calabar on the heels of the ongoing recovery of alleged stolen government properties by the state House of Assembly. Some of the properties reportedly recovered by the leadership of the assembly include heavy-duty tractors said to have been carted away by Ayade’s former officials, a 100-bed hotel in Abuja dubiously sold for six million naira to an unknown person, as well as the stoppage of the private renovation of the Cross River Liaison House also in Abuja.

 

Eba said: “The former governor’s number one man is Governor Bassey Otu. And for a man who sacrificed so much to bring Governor Otu to power, he is a man with a good heart. Governor Otu appreciates Ayade and will not allow anybody, not even the devil, to come between them. The party under my leadership also will not.”

 

Eba seriously frowned at the words ‘witch-hunting’, stressing that nobody would be allowed to come between the governor and his predecessor.

 

“There is no witchhunt by anybody,” he said.

 

“Regarding the recovery of properties, government equipment are found at government’s construction site. The word is recovery but that it was stolen is completely out of place and whoever uses it should withdraw it completely.”

 

Eba alluded to the fact that the Cross River State Assembly has its powers to do whatever they are doing and maintained that nobody will defend fraud.