Cross River State governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Eyo Ekpo has told the people of Cross River Northern Senatorial District that the governor of CRS who built up massive infrastructure in the district, Donald Duke, was not from the district.
Ekpo who spoke when he met with party faithful in Ogoja Local Government Area, as he kicked off his campaign, enjoined the people to look at places like the Obudu Ranch Resort and remember that a very detribalised Donald Duke, built up the place to international standards. “Duke was initially rejected but later embraced by the North and the things he built here are still standing for all of us to see. He wasn’t from CR North, he was from Cross River State and saw the state not in senatorial districts but as one indivisible whole and worked to better this whole state.”
Taking a swipe at CRS governor, Ben Ayade, Eyo Ekpo expressed displeasure to those gathered that, the governor who is from the North has done little or nothing in the North or in any other part of the state. “That he has done nothing here is not a function of where he is from; a leader ideally should work for his people and not for some of his people like Ayade is doing. He shouldn’t wait until elections are by the corner before he attempts to do one or two things; I will not operate like this when I am elected as governor, I will not focus on improving myself and my family to the detriment of every other person in the state, like Ayade has done”, Ekpo said. He promised to return the glory of Cross River North by reopening the Obudu Mountain Resort, the Bebi Airstrip, the Obudu Mountain Race and fix the bad roads that litter the district. He came clear that he was kicking off his campaign in the area and to convince Cross Riverians from there that the SDP should be voted ahead of other parties.
Earlier, Wofai Ewa, deputy governorship candidate of the party who also spoke at the occasion stated that the party is in the race to rescue the state from the hands of those who have deliberately set out to under-develop the state. Ewa informed that there was a time the state was seen as the leading light of other states in Nigeria and people who are from the state held themselves with respect as the state was run with purpose and a sense of direction.
Cross River State Chairman of the party, Eni Ikpi, present at the occasion, said the SDP is in the governorship race to win, and that it will be done with no violence. The Chairman urged all party members to encourage people to come out and vote as that is the only way to defeat the incumbent.
