Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade, has debunked claims by the opposition All Progressives Congress in the state that the government was engaging in any land grabbing exercise.
The leading opposition party in a recent statement signed by the Publicity Secretary of the state chapter of the APC, Bassey Ita, had said, “We wish to bring to public knowledge that the recent quit order issued by the Governor, Senator Ben Ayade, on the Cross River Property and Investment Company [CROSPIL] along the Bishop Moynagh Avenue, State Housing Estate, Calabar for a proposed vocation centre is nothing but a renewed bid to illegally grab the said land for his private use.”
The Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the Governor, Mr. Christian Ita, debunked the APC claims, saying that the state government is establishing a Fabrication Academy to train middle-level manpower requirement of the oil industry and so identified buildings in the CROSPIL estate which the government wants to complete and use same for hostels to accommodate students of the proposed Fabrication Academy.
“It is not the entire CROSPIL, there are some uncompleted buildings in the CROSPIL premises which the government wants to complete and use for the hostel for the academy,” Ita said.
“This idea of quitting the company from its location for a phantom vocation centre against the overriding public interest is in our consideration another gross abuse of office by the governor. Nothing can be so tyrannical and draconian than this, especially as it is done through the usual executive tardiness and fiat of this administration.”