Judex Okoro, Calabar.
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2019 governorship election in Cross River State, Eyo Ekpo, has stated that Governor Ben Ayade has committed an impeachable offence, calling on the state House of Assembly to rise to the occasion.
He listed the governor’s offences to include non-implementation of the past four’s budget, engaging in extra-budgetary expenditures, spending without accounting for it, running the government in secrecy and illegal acquisition of 9,000 hectares of land across the three senatorial districts.
Speaking at the weekend in Calabar, Ekpo, who was the former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice
under Mr. Donald Duke, said it was
unfortunate that members of the House of Assembly turn a blind eye to the excesses of the governor while allowing the state to drift.
He said: “Look we have had four
budgets and he has not implemented any of them; he has been spending money without accounting, without
publicly accounting for it. All these are impeachable offences.
“Other offences of the governor include secret acquisition of 9,000 hectares of land across the three senatorial districts and the inability of the governor to pay all workers in the state despite the fact that he got over N7billion from the Federal government, among other allegations.
“Unfortunately, nobody in the House
will make a move to impeach him. Ayade will not and cannot be impeached even if he goes to Watt market and beheads a man in the afternoon,” he stated.
According to him, the governor has been vilified recently by prominent persons in the state over his absence from the state for over two weeks in the midst of communal crisis and cult wars which have so far claimed more than 20 lives in the last two weeks.
He lamented that despite all these, the lawmakers had not found it necessary to address this level of ignominy in the state where people looked forward to coming for business, for leisure and pleasure.