by A HARVEST OF ENDORSEMENTS FOR SANDY ONOR AS SATURDAY 18 BECKONS
BY DOMINIC KIDZU
Saturday this week is going to be an unforgettable day for Cross River State as the people troop out in their numbers to cast their vote for the kind of tomorrow they want. Already, political, religious, socio-cultural and commercial interest groups have began to indicate clearly the choices they have made and the direction of their votes.
For Senator Sandy Onor it has been a harvest of endorsements from very influential people and groups who have chosen him over and above the APC candidate. The battle cry from all who have pledged to help to crown him king has been the search for a clean break from the nightmare of the APC administration which they have disavowed as evil and retrogressive.
They all seem to agree that a vote for Prince Otu will translate to foisting an Ayade dynasty in Cross River State through the backdoor since it was Ben Ayade’s consumptive junior brother, Frank Ayade, who single handedly chose Prince Otu as candidate and has continued to fund his campaign from the proceeds of state capture in the last eight years. Apart from Frank Ayade, huge amounts of money are also said to have been removed from the local government funds for the Ayade-Continuity-Project which they are prosecuting as a do-or-die affair.
The Ibo union in Cross River state has endorsed Senator Sandy Onor, so has the Akwa Ibom union, two critical interest groups in the state. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Cross River wing of National Youth Council of Nigeria, about ten other political parties, apart from the Labour Party and it’s vastly popular presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi and our quintessential former Governor, Mr Donald Duke.
Only yesterday, ten candidates for the two seats in the House of Assembly from Calabar South, Prince Otu’s safe heaven, also joined the widely popular movement for Sandy Onor governorship. Various women groups and market associations have also adopted Senator Onor’s electrifying running mate, Emana Duke Amawhe and are rallying their members to work for her ticket.
It is now very clear that the people have rejected the APC and what the party has come to represent under the mediocre leadership of Governor Ben Ayade who spent eight years supervising the deliberate and systemic destruction of everything the people were proud of about their dear state. Our rich forests, our tourism, our finances and all state institutions have been laid waste by a party and government that does not know when enough is actually enough.
Now the die is cast and the people have made their choice. Even though the ruling party has continued to perfect their plans to manipulate election results by compromising INEC officials, disruption of the voting process and thuggery, the will of the people will triumph and their choices will still stand. As Donald Duke said in his endorsement video yesterday, “This Back-to-South slogan is simply just back to the status quo, back to the Ayades with one transitioning from Co-governor to the actual governor through his surrogate he single-handedly picked and has funded thus far”.
