Election: Obong of Calabar directs Efiks to vote Ayade
....Says Governor’s re-election unstoppable


Few days to the March 9 governorship election in Cross River State, the Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V, yesterday directed every son and daughter of the Efik Kingdom to vote massively for incumbent Governor Ben Ayade.
The first class monarch said nobody or force can stop the re-election of Governor Ayade.
In what appeared a royal proclamation, he said: "From today, no matter the party you have been tagging along with, wherever you have been going, if you are an Efik son or daughter and from the southern senatorial district, withdraw yourself back to the PDP and let us move forward and vote massively for Governor Ayade to complete his four more years, and nobody else.”
Alluding to the power rotation principle in the state, the monarch said nobody can distort what is on ground.
And turning to the governor, he said: “we have sat as traditional rulers and spiritual fathers and we came to a conclusion. We made a statement and that statement holds. Nobody, no power can take that second term from you.”
The Calabar monarch further directed all Efiks to "come back home and let's do what we have to do. Come back and let us form the nucleus and let's build up and vote our sitting Governor and his deputy"
Assuring the Governor of total Efik votes, he said "there is no vacancy in Government House. It is you that we want."
Turning to his Cabinet, the Obong told them that Governor Ayade has done a lot for Cross River and for the Efik nation in particular to deserve re-election..
"There are so many things he has done...we all àre aware he doesn't need to come here and begin to tell us because when you walk out, you will see most of this things or feel them. If you look at the whole state, it is calm and quiet. We have a governor and we are not looking for another one", he said.
In his reaction to the royal endorsement , Professor Ayade told the Obong and Etubom in council that his vision and master plan was to create a new cross river state that would shift from third world to first world noting that he is a Governor with the fear of God who is committed to the industrialization of the state thereby creating jobs for the teaming youths.
"I am not a product of complex, cheap politics, I am a product of calculated, sophisticated and well thought out process set on a mission to decouple the state from dependenc on federal allocation", he said
Ayade explained that upon assumption of office in 2015, the state was at the verge of economic collapse having lost its oil wells. "Our people had been reduced to want in body , spirit and soul and so we needed to construct a new economy", he stated
While cataloguing his achievements in three and half years, governor Ayade said inspite of the state being the third most indebted and 35 out of 36 state of the federation in terms of federal allocation, his administration is not owing salaries and pension, and has engaged over 8000 appointees and avalanche of industries built across the state.
He assured the Obong that after his second term in 2023 power will rotate to the southern Senatorial district in line with the state's power rotation formula.