Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade has denied ordering the leaders of 18 local government councils to freeze non-Indigenous businesses for their massive Labor Party votes in last weekend’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.
An unsigned statement was circulated on Saturday in parts of the major cities in the state announcing that the APC leadership in the state had ordered council chairmen to close shops of non-indigenous traders in Cross River State.
Most of the shops ordered to close include the popular Watt Market, Marian Market, Ikom Market and shops in Ogoja and Obudu.
The APC leadership has blamed non-indigenes in the state for the failure of Governor Ben Ayade and Ntufam Edim Enoch at the polls in the just concluded elections.
“We cannot continue to tolerate indigenes, especially Igbo traders in Cross River State, working against the APC.
But for the ‘stranger elements’ in Calabar Municipality, especially the Igbo people who overwhelmingly voted for the Labor Party, Ntufam Edim Inok should have won the Reps seat of Odukpani/Calbar Municipality.
We are now aware that there is another grand plot by these unknown elements to vote against APC as a form of protest against INEC for the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect.
“The Presidents of the Council will direct all non-native merchants to vote for APC, otherwise they risk having their shops locked,” the statement said.
“This is a terrible blackmail from the depths of hell,” Ayyad said in a text message to an Igbo leader in the state who had contacted the governor.
The APC’s campaign council spokesman in the state, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla also said, “This is rubbish, nonsense, ridiculous, ridiculous, blatant, childish, vile and malice of the fragmented and morally bankrupt PDP and its allies who are at the forefront of the agitation to divide Nigerians along sectarian lines to seize power through inferior methods.
“APC is the only national and progressive party whose manifesto is to promote true federalism, inclusiveness and a united Nigeria.
“The above assertion is not from APC.
There is nothing therein to indicate it emanated from APC. It is categorically rejected.
It is pure fiction calculated to demarket APC and should be disregarded and discounted.”
Crime Channel
