Former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice under the Donald Duke administration, Barr Eyo Ekpo has called for the impeachment of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State.
Speaking in Calabar, Ekpo blamed the State House of Assembly for not initiating impeachment processes against Governor Ben Ayade, saying the Governor has committed a lot of impeachable offences.
He said, “It was unfortunate that members of the House of Assembly were turning a blind eye to the excesses of the governor, while allowing the state to drift. Eyo Ekpo listed the governor’s offences to include, but not limited to, having four budgets without implementing anyone.
“Spending money without accounting for it, running government in secrecy, and calling his brother “Co-governor” which has given the brother more influence in government than the elected Deputy Governor, a name that has no place in the constitution of the country.
“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. Look at how he has been running government, he calls his brother co-governor; his brother has more influence in government than the deputy governor; all these are impeachable offences,” Ekpo said.
Ekpo regretted that, “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 behead a man in the afternoon.”
Governor Ayade has been vilified recently by prominent persons in the state over his absence from the state despite communal crises and cult wars which have so far claimed more than 20 lives in the last two weeks.
Other alleged offences of the governor include supposed secret acquisition of 9,000 hectares of land across the three senatorial districts which the House of Assembly has halted and the inability of the governor to pay all workers in the state despite getting over seven billion naira from the federal government, among other allegations.
But Ekpo, who was Governorship Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2019 Governorship election in Cross River State, was full of regret that the House of Assembly has been finding it difficult in check-mating the excesses of the governor, not to talk of initiating any impeachment processes to “at least to caution him”.
“The House of Assembly sees nothing wrong in a governor bringing down the state to this level of ignominy and this is a state where people were looking forward to coming for business, for leisure and pleasure. We have so come to the level where nothing is working anymore in the state, yet we have a House of Assembly,” Ekpo regretted.
