Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has explained that his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) is due to President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership qualities, saying he wants to help the 78-year-old in dealing with the challenges facing the country.Ayade moved to the APC from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday after months of speculations but explained, however, that he had no issue with his former party.

“As to whether there are issues in the PDP, no. The party stood by me all through the way,” the governor said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

“In any other legal issue that I have had, PDP had stood with me. PDP gave me the opportunity to be a senator; PDP gave me the opportunity to be governor. I would never have any time to pull down PDP. I have integrity, character, and honour. My politics have ethics. My decision to join APC is to join the President to reduce the tension in the country.”

A ‘Depressed’ Governor?
Nigeria has in recent times grappled with myriads of security challenges and the governor is calling on citizens to rally around the country’s leader to help in combating these issues which he says make him unhappy.

Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on May 20, 2021.

“I feel depressed when the nation is challenged with security issues,” he noted.  “Instead of us rising as an orgasmic whole to see how we can support the President to deal with these foreign herders that are colonising our various roads and farms, we rather sit back; we tend to create an impression as if the government is not doing well.”

The Cross River leader also hinted that some governors on the platform of the PDP will soon join the ruling party, denying claims he defected to the APC because he suffered a huge loss at the recent PDP congress held in his state.

“I am happy to announce to you that very soon, more governors are joining (the APC) because what we want to achieve is a country where we all can sit with the President and agree on our succession process, we don’t have to fight,” Ayade explained, but did not mention the governors.

The former lawmaker also expressed joy over his defection to the ruling party, noting that his cabinet and other persons will soon move from the PDP.

“All the chairmen of the local governments, almost all the House of Assembly members, most of the National Assembly members, my entire commissioners and cabinet today,” he added. “That is the amount of the political structure … in Cross River State, once the governor moves, everybody moves.”

Channels TV