By Abasi Ita
Two senior chieftains of the All Progressives Congress in Cross River State have faulted former governor, Senator Ben Ayade, over his recent claims that the party treated him unfairly despite his loyalty and role in leading the state into the APC in 2020.
In separate reactions on Sunday, Hon Bravo Gabriel Oluohu and former presidential aide, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, dismissed Ayade’s remarks as misplaced and self-serving, insisting that the former governor is responsible for his political setbacks.
Oluohu described Ayade’s complaint, made at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar on Friday, as “self-inflicted,” stressing that the former governor undermined his own influence in the party when he contested the APC presidential ticket in 2022 despite having minimal chances of success.
He stated that Ayade was given the APC senatorial ticket “against all odds” but lost at the polls due to rejection by the electorate, not the party. Oluohu further alleged that Ayade withheld campaign funds during the 2023 elections, a development he said was reported to President Bola Tinubu and interpreted as an act of betrayal.
Similarly, Obono-Obla faulted Ayade’s frequent claim that he “socketed” Cross River to the political centre, describing it as “fiction, revisionism and an attempt to rewrite recent political history.”
He argued that the APC had already taken root in Cross River long before Ayade’s defection in 2020, listing pioneer figures such as Alex Irek, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, Cletus Obun, Bassey Iso and himself as those who built the party’s structure in the state from 2013.
“Anyone claiming to be the father of APC in Cross River is delusional,” he said, recalling that by 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office, Cross River had already secured federal appointments and projects, including a federal polytechnic in Ugep.
Obono-Obla further accused Ayade of sidelining foundation members of the APC after his defection, rewarding only his loyalists with both state and federal positions, while those who nurtured the party were ignored.
He urged Ayade to stop distorting history and accept that the party’s rise in Cross River resulted from collective effort and sacrifice, not the work of one individual.