Ayade to hand over ‘dubiously appointed aides’ to police

Many of the over 6000 special advisers and personal assistants to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State allegedly appointed through the back door will be handed over to police for prosecution.

Mr Christian Ita, the Senior Special Adviser to the governor on Media, said this in the wake of an audit exercise of all political appointees ordered by the governor.

The audit was due to over bloated monthly wage bill, and strange names paraded as special advisers and assistants to the governor.

Ayade in a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Tina Agbor, had ordered immediate verification of all political appointments made by his administration so far.

The exercise, which was being conducted in conjunction with the office of the Head of Service and that of the Accountant General, commenced yesterday with commissioners and special advisers in attendance.

The turn of the senior special assistants and personal assistants would be today; while community relations officers and chairmen/ members of boards/directors’ comes up tomorrow.

The statement enjoined the affected persons to attend the exercise in person on the date and time specified for them.

Ita said the verification exercise was similar to the ones conducted for state civil servants and pensioners recently, and was aimed at exposing “fake appointees.”

According to him, “It has been suspected that certain names were not those directly appointed by the governor. And so, he wants to know his actual appointees. Those that would be discovered not appointed by the governor would be handed over to the security agencies,” Ita stated.