Ayade defends appointment of 1,096 aides as opposition kicks

Despite public outcry of the number of political appointments made by Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, he has said he would appoint additional one hundred political appointees for Ikom Local Government Area.

Ayade said the exercise was for wealth creation and poverty alleviation. It would be recalled that the governor first appointed 29 commissioners, 65 special advisers and over 100 special assistants before the recent appointment of 1,096 aides. The governor disclosed Friday while taking over the keys of Ikom Township Stadium, promising more appointments for the people in that area.

Ayade said: “Instead of shrinking, we are expanding government to take the people out of poverty and a way of getting the people out of recession.”

But the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state has given the governor a hard knock over what they called “a bloated cabinet.”

John Ochala, acting state chairman of the APC, said in a press statement made available to BDSUNDAY in Calabar that the general thinking of the people is that the state economy could not afford such over-bloated number of political jobbers, saying, “we thought we have seen the worst and quickly adjusted to live with that shameful and visionless thinking. We don’t know what the governor has turned Cross River into. How can anybody justify the appointment of 1,096 aides under these harsh economic realities? The so-called superhighway project is a fraud to enable him fell economic trees and export same for personal benefits, no due process was followed in the acquisition of land, no environmental impact assessment, no compensation plan,” Ochala said.

The statement alleged that Governor Ayade’s total number of aides now is between 1,250 and 1,300, who are to earn an average of N600,000 per month per aide.

The opposition further alleged that “Ayade makes his aides to sign for the full salary but pays them about thirty percent (i.e N200,000.00). Now, if you multiply N400,000 by 1,250 aides, you will get N500,000,000.00. Now you know why Ayade is excited about the bizarre bazaar.”

“We hereby call on the Federal Government to investigate the activities of Governor Ayade with a view to establishing the truth or otherwise of the above allegations for the overall benefit of the good people of Cross River State.”