After several months of speculations, Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, on Thursday defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, leaving the People’s Democratic Party.
Ayade made a formal declaration to join the APC at the Cross River State Executive Council Chamber, in the Governor’s Office in Calabar. This came after a two-hour meeting with seven APC governors, who were led by the party’s interim chairman and governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni.
Ayade’s planned defection has been in the news for months. At a time, some governors of the PDP visited him in Calabar, ostensibly to convince him to stay back in the party.
Speaking on why he left PDP for the APC,
Ayade gave as his reasons for leaving the party President Muhammadu Buhari’s character attributes, and the need for Cross River, which has been weakened economically after the ceding of its oil wells, needs to be in harmony with the party at the centre,.
“Having seen and known the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his commitment to this country, his nationalistic disposition and all the efforts he has made to bring Nigeria to where we are today, it is obvious that at this point we needed to join hands with him to build a Nigeria that we can be proud of,” Ayade said.
“We need all governors to recognize that it is not the party that matters. It is a character, it is an honour, it is a commitment to the vision of this great nation.
“We all need to as teamwork ahead of the president by working towards building a prosperous country that the succession worries of 2023 will come without the fears and the worries the international community has for us.
“I believe that if every one of us as governor joins hands with Mr President, I think we can sit on the same dining table and fashion out a way to govern this country,” Ayade noted.
Buni, on his part, said he and his team were in the state to formally welcome Governor Ayade to the APC.
“I am here on behalf of the APC family to welcome His Excellency the Executive Governor of Cross River State formally to the APC. As of today, he is the leader of the party in the state.”
Those who accompanied him on the journey were Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Solomon Lalong of Plateau State, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and his Jigawa State counterpart, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar.
