Obong of Calabar calls for interim govt in Cross River

The Obong, who made this declaration, yesterday, in his palace, when the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Liyel Imoke paid him a courtesy visit on the October 23 and 24 carnage in Calabar said: “I have been watching and I am so unhappy that the peace and calm we used to have here is taken away. Why? Because we have failed. Who has failed? The politicians have failed. There is need to change.

“And if I had my way, I would have said this governor should wait. Let’s set up an interim administration, so that he can start learning and looking at how administration is actually done. We don’t allow people to come in and do anything the way they like. No, there is a principle; there is a policy that should be adhered to…

There has to be a change of attitude. Everyone should have access to the governor, and he should listen. And now that we have professor in the administration, we expected the best.

People should be able to go and give the governor ideas and advice, and if he doesn’t like the ideas, he can throw them away… 

“The Governor is the Chief Security officer. He should be holding security meetings regularly. This thing would not have happened, if he had called the security people together after hearing what happened in Lagos and other places….”

Imoke explained that he was there with his group to get some advice from the Obong before setting out to look for solution; to ensure it never happens again in Cross River State.  

“We are not here to play the blame game. We are here to look for sustainable solutions. We need your guidance as we go about looking for solutions to the challenge of unemployed youths, who have grievances…” he said.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Christian Ita exonerated the governor of any blame on the security situation and the crisis in the state saying, “this is what frustrates me about Cross River. When it happened in Lagos, was Sanwo-Olu not having security meetings? When it happened in 19 states in the South, were they not holding security meetings? Let’s stop all these cheap politicking…”