Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade has declared the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the only presidential candidate with the capacity to move Nigeria forward.
The governor, who is the APC senatorial candidate for Cross River North made the declaration at Ogoja, the political capital of Cross River North senatorial district at the weekend during an electioneering campaign.
The town was totally shut down as a mammoth crowd of cheering residents trooped out to welcome the APC campaign train.
The Ogoja council Hall where Ayade had earlier had a strategic meeting with critical stakeholders of the council before proceeding to the Ogoja Township stadium for a rally was filled to the rafters.
At the stakeholders meeting, Ayade insisted it was the turn of Southern Cross River to produce the next governor, saying anything to contrary amounts to injustice.
Security agents had a hectic day at the stadium wadding through thousands of ecstatic crowds that swarmed the facility to get a glimpse of the governor and other candidates of the party in the state, including its governorship candidate, Senator Bassey Otu, House of Reps candidate, Hon. Jude Ngaji and House of Assembly candidate, Thomas Aruku.
Speaking at the rally where hundreds of former members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP defected to the APC, Ayade urged the people to vote for the APC from top to bottom to reciprocate his achievements in Ogoja.
“I built the first Vitaminized Rice Mill in Ogoja. For the first time, a state polytechnic is coming to Ogoja. For the first time, Ogoja has four Commissioners. Ogoja is my home”, he said.
The governor argued that justice, equity, competence and capacity to deliver demanded that Tinubu and Otu become president and governor respectively.
His words: “Tinubu can fix Nigeria. Tinubu comes with experience, he is an experiential architect with eyes-on and hands-on.
“He is a man who has got capacity; he has been invited at this time to do all he can to see to the growth of Nigeria. I, therefore, ask every person here to vote for Tinubu and also ask everyone here to please, tell every Nigerian to vote for Tinubu. It is the turn of Southern Nigeria to produce a president.
“Nigeria must remain one and the indivisibility of Nigeria is based on the principle of justice. It is also based on that sense of justice that I ask you to vote Distinguished Senator (Prince Otu) as the next Governor of Cross River state. It is the turn of Southern Cross River to produce governor, North and central having produced theirs. Prince Otu has the capacity, he has the intellect, he has integrity, he has content, he has every single element that qualifies one to be governor.”
Speaking further on why the APC presidential candidate should be voted into office, Ayade said Tinubu would make the infrastructural and economic development of Cross River a priority if elected.
According to him, “we are supporting Tinubu because if you listened to his speech on the day he won the primaries, the only thing he mentioned was the Bakassi Deep Seaport.
“He said he was going to ensure that the Bakassi Deep Seaport was completed under his first term. If he does that Bakassi Deep Seaport with a dual carriage road and the superhighway, Cross River will be the next Lagos.
“So supporting Tinubu is total because if he could fix a populous Lagos with calmness and decency, moving to the 5th biggest economy in Africa, then he can fix Nigeria.
“Let’s support Tinubu to become president of Nigeria so that the Bakassi Deep Seaport can be constructed.”
On his part, Senator Otu appealed to the people to vote for him and his running mate, Hon. Peter Odey who is an indigene of the area, promising to consolidate on the gains of the Ayade administration.
