•••I DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRIMARIES – AYADE
A supposed dark horse, in Cross River State, Adams Cecelia, has defeated the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade in the contest for the Cross River North Senatorial District ticket of the All Progressives Congress.
The governor came a distant third in the primary election.
Ayade polled 52 votes to crash out of the race against Adams Cecelia, who scored 140, while Martin Orim got 61 votes.
Ayede’s tenure ends next year as he completes his eight years as governor of the state in 2023.
Recall that the governor decamped to the APC after dumping the main opposition party, PDP in May 2021.
As Governor of Cross River State, Ayade will be remembered for the hose breaking names he gave to the budgets his administration executed in Cross River State.
These are: Budget of Deep Vision (2016) Budget of Infinite Transposition (2017), Budget of Kinetic Crystallization (2018), Budget of Quabalistic Densification (2019), 2020: Budget of Olimpotic Meristemasis 2021: Budget of Blush and Bliss (2021) and Budget of Conjugated Agglutination (2022).
But Ayade reacted on Saturday evening that he did not participate in the primaries.
Ayade’s Adviser on Media and Publicity, Christian Ita, said in a statement on Saturday that he (Ayade) is a Presidential aspirant who would participate in the APC national convention on June 6.
“The attention of the Cross River State Government has been drawn to a video circulating in cyberspace purporting to be a parallel All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial primaries for Northern Cross River where His Excellency, Professor Ben Ayade was listed as a participant.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we hereby state clearly that Governor Ayade did not take part in any senatorial primaries.
“His Excellency is a presidential aspirant who will be taking part in the APC presidential convention now slated for June 6.” The statement read