Defection: Why Ayade Sacked Commissioners, Aides

By Stanley Ekpenyong

Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade’s decision to sack four of his Commissioners and four Senior Aides, Monday, came to many as a shock, having promised, May 20th, while addressing members of the State Executive Council shortly after announcing his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC, that nobody will lose their jobs as a result of the new political realities in the State.

This magazine learnt that the Governor never contemplated that any member of his cabinet would stay back in the PDP, hence he never planned to dissolve the cabinet.

However, he was said to have been taken aback when some of the now sacked Commissioners: Mrs Rita Ayim, Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mike Usibe, Commissioner for New Cities and Donatus Etim, Commssioner for Climate Change surfaced two days later at the State’s PDP  meeting held at Transcorp Hotel, Calabar.

In fact, Usibe and Ayim were later named members of the Cross River state PDP Caretaker Committee headed by former Deputy Governor, Effiok Cobham. Mrs Ayim is now the Publicity Secretary of the Committee.

For the sacked Information Commissioner, Asu Okan, he has never hidden his partisanship on the side of his kinsman and mentor, Senator Sandy Onor, representing Cross River Central senatorial district in the Senate.

Both men hail from Etung Local Government Area of the state. Senator Onor was one part of the National Assembly members from Cross River who squared up against Governor Ayade for the structures of the PDP in the State.

Etim, the sacked  New Cities Commissioner is reportedly a nominee of Senator Gershon Bassey representing Cross River South in the Senate. Like Senator Onor, Senator Bassey was also part of the Abuja based Cross River PDP bigwigs who fought the Governor over the soul of the party.

The fate of the sacked Commssioners and aides appeard to had been sealed on Sunday by their absence at the APC integration dinner the Governor   held with party stakeholders in the state at Dorchester Hall, Spar Mall Calabar.

At the event which had in attendance, former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, former Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, Cross River APC Gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 election, Senator Owan Eno, two former Senators that represented Cross River South in the Senate, Senators Prince Bassey Otu and Florence Ita -Giwa, a former Presidential aide, Obono Obla, immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor Zana Akpagu among other party bigwigs,  Ayade declare his former party, PDP, as dead and buried in Cross River “because anybody who is not here is nowhere”.

Apart from the four Commissioners, Governor Ayade, also, sacked four of his aides: Leo Inyambe, Rt Hon. Orok Otu Duke, Mr. Victor Okon (Alausa) and Mr. John Etim Bassey.

A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Christian Ita, quoted the Governor as thanking the sacked Commissioners for their services to the State while asking them to surrender all Government properties in their possession, including vehicles, to the office of the Chief of Staff “with immediate effect”.