Fred Itua, Abuja
Days after a group of Cross River indigenes stormed the Wadata House, national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, there was another major protest against the Cross River Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, on Thursday.
The protesters took over the national secretariat, demanding that the party should not contemplate handing him a second term ticket, unless it wanted to lose the state.
In a petition addressed to the National Chairman, Uche Secondus, the protesters under the name, Forever Cross River, led by John Offiong and Basset Ekpo Bassey, claimed that Cross River State under Ayade has derailed from what it was during the past administrations of Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke.
The group accused the governor of misappropriating the state’s meagre resources “through high sounding, yet incomplete and dubiously misconceived projects such as the super highway, which has led to deforestation of the state, deep sea port project, new City of Callas Vegas, Cally Air Airline, rice city, to mention a few.”
READ ALSO: You’re heating up polity, cleric tells APC, PDP
The group also raised an issue over increasing insecurity in the state which it claimed has reached an alarming rate.
It called on the party to ensure Ayade did not emerge as the party’s candidate in the next election if PDP wanted to win the state.
In the same vein, the protesters presented a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and alleged that the governor had allegedly misappropriated bailout funds running into billions.
They listed contracts such as dualisation of Tinapa-Odukpani highway, dredging of Callas Vegas for which over N26 billion had been released.
The group, therefore, urged the EFCC to beam its searchlight on the activities of the governor and his administration.