By Abasi Ita, Calabar
…We need big boys to represent us at Senate , not megalomaniac – Ayade
…We won’t reward failure, rush hour audio projects can’t stop your impending disgrace at the polls – Senator Jarigbe
As preparations toward the forthcoming elections gather momentum, the rhetorical alterations between the two leading contenders for Cross River North Senatorial ticket,Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe and Governor Ben Ayade has continue unabated despite clarion calls for refrain from royal fathers in the area.
Apart from intermittent appearances at People Democratic Party PDP campaign schedules, Senator Jarigbe has been quiet and busy supervising the execution of the multiple people -oriented projects he attracted to change the narratives of the area often regarded as the most backyard when compared to the other senatorial districts in the state despite boosting of a sitting governor
On the other hand, Governor Ben Ayade, who is gunning for a second stint at the Red Chambers having served as Senator Cross River North between 2011 and 2015, before becoming the governor at the expiration of his term has been playing a role of a spoiler by mobilizing thugs and security personnel to harass contractors at project sites credited to Senator Jarigbe from going about their normal activities
Findings by Summit Post indicates that Governor Ayade is also playing the catch up role in last minute efforts to launder an apparently battered image owing to his widely acknowledged poor performance by duplicating some projects already executed by Senator Jarigbe.
Some of the projects being replicated by Ayade in a bid to impress the electorate and curry electoral favours ahead the National Assembly Election which is the priority attention of the Governor Ayade include boreholes and solar powered street lights said to be handled by some appointees and permanent secretaries from the area, now regarded by pundits as a potential political flashpoint in Cross River
Senator Ayade is equally undertaking another rounds of ground breaking ceremonies described as a ruse by PDP for road constructions and a state Polytechnic in Ogoja even though both projects been captured in the 2023 Federal Budget courtesy of his arch rival, Senator Jarigbe
The first salvo for the latest verbal fracas was fired by Governor Ben Ayade during the flag off of the All Progressives Congress APC Governorship Campaign in Ogoja, when he told APC supporters in a veiled reference to Jarigbe, that no stone should be left unturned in sending him to the Senate in place of a “megalomaniac who will be sweeping the floor of the Red Chambers and carrying files for the big boys, mostly ex governors, who are expected to dominate the 10th Senate while he will presides as the Senate President”
But in a quick reaction, Senator Jarigbe stated that given his strict religious upbringing,he would not”condescend to the level of joining issues with those from poverty stricken background who has an insatiable appetite for public funds instigated by their questionable morale profile “
According to the federal lawmaker ” those whose dirty linens have been washed by our collective resolve should stay humble and allow their projects, if any, to talk rather than inundating us with their latest scamming semantics”
Senator Jarigbe, who is credited with diverse intervention projects carefully selected to address the peculiar needs of the people across the 54 political wards of the implored the Governor to “desist from desperate actions capable of undermining the dignity of his office as well as the harmonious coexistence among the people because of a vaulted political ambition”
Meanwhile,stakeholders in Cross River North have implored both parties in the rhetorical warfare to guard their utterances and avoid overheating the polity ahead the general elections.