Business Day (Nigeria)

You can’t take power from incumbent governor without his blessing - Ekpenyong

- MIKE ABANG, Calabar

Chairman Davandy Group of Companies and founder Ekondo Micro Finance Bank, Asuquo Ekpenyong has said that it is naturally difficult to take over power from an incumbent governor without his blessings.

Ekpenyong disclosed this while hosting family, friends, associates and party stalwarts to a reception in his residence in Calabar to mark his 73rd birthday.

He emphatical­ly said that those forming alliance against the sitting governor are not wise because “you cannot take power from an incumbent governor when you are not in power.”

According to him, some people who have derailed are currently running helter-skelter behind closed doors begging to be incorporat­ed back into the scheme of things to be in Governor Ben Ayade’s good books ahead of 2023.

Addressing a cross session of the Odukpani PDP stalwarts, he admonished them not to allow themselves to be deceived by desperate politician­s who are being unnecessar­ily overzealou­s in their quest for political aggrandise­ment, saying that they must give Governor Ben Ayade the unflinchin­g support required to transit effectivel­y into 2023.

He reiterated also that in the political landscape of Cross River State there is no other power compared with that of a sitting governor and according to him, all Ayade’s detractors are fully aware by now that they are dancing to the gallery.

He encouraged all PDP stalwarts across the state to be consistent in their formidable support for the Ayade administra­tion because there is no family that will not have disagreeme­nts but what is important is the ability to sort out the issues within a reasonable time frame to prevent “those characters with their dangling insecuriti­es from causing the PDP family that has been built with so much sacrifice and difficulti­es over the years to disintegra­te because of their personal ambitions.”

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