A coalition of civil societies groups in Cross River state has called on Governor Ben Ayade to explain the whereabouts of money realized from “economic trees fell by the administration in the name of the Super Highway project.”
The Coalition said this Thursday while protesting what they described as impunity of the Ayade-led administration. They include Grassroots Advocacy for Good Governance and Accountability; Citizens Solution Network; Say Something Action Group; Justice Ambassadors Initiatives; Nigeria’s Future Leaders Movement and Save Cross River State Movement, amongst others.
Armed with a protest letter addressed to the governor, the group matched to the Cross River House of Assembly where they delivered the letter.
They restated their resolve to reclaim the fortune of the state which they claimed have been brought to its knees socio-economically within a period of four years.
The letter, read by the Director General, Grassroots Advocacy for Good Governance and Accountability (GAGGA), Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah said: “We wish to know the state of those fallen economic trees, where they are, and if they have been sold, we wish to know the dealers involved and the amount of money raised and where such fund is currently. We condemn the lack of transparency surrounding these economic trees that have great bio diverse significance and economic importance. All Cross Riverians wants to know.”
The group said they were angry over “widespread insecurity challenges within the state in form of communal clashes that are in public domain. “We are of the position that the absence of elected local government chairmen and counselors in the state made it impossible to tackle these insecurity challenges effectively due to the collapse of our once efficient and sound local government administrative system.
“We are calling on you, to conduct free and fair LGA elections within 60 days so as to get duly elected officials with the constitutional mandate needed to address the insecurity in their respective LGAs.
“We wish to state that why we share the view that you have the executive power to borrow money on behalf of the state, we demand that the entire loan approval process be reviewed and re-deliberated by the House of Assembly so as to bring transparency, clarification and legitimacy to the exercise.
“In furtherance to our demand for answers in respect to the ambiguity of the loan being requested for and the lack of transparency surrounding series of funds allocated by your administration for state projects and your list of signature projects that are yet to be materialised; we call for the probing of all the activities of the Office of Due Process of the state by ICPC and EFCC so as to establish the extent our commonwealth is being accounted for, since virtually every transaction your administration authorised passes through the Office of Due Process.”
