- Jarigbe To Ayade: You Are A Liar, Deserve Nothing From Tinubu
At last, the outcome of the dramatic invitation of Prof Ben Ayade to a meeting with the president, Bola Tinubu has become public, giving an indication that Senator Agom Jarigbe may just be coasting home to a re-election victory, even before election.
From Ayade’s lamentations as amplified by some of his core supporters, he had been invited to Aso Rock to be humiliated. It has turned out to be his second humiliation after leaving office, the first being his loss to Jarigbe during the 2023 senate election.
Penultimate month, his former chief of staff, Martins Orim, had told TNN that it would be difficult for Ayade to win the 2027 senate election, even though the former governor had publicly whipped up the sentiment of entitlement when he said that the governor, Senator Bassey Otu, the APC leader in Cross River, would give him the party ticket in return for an earlier favour he showed him.
His invitation to Aso Rock for a meeting with Tinubu was rather suspicious. TNN had reported last week, that Otu was unable to deliver the message of rejection from The Presidency to him, hence the decision to announce the invitation publicly, instead of informing Ayade privately.
Whereas the so-called meeting took place last week, it took Ayade a few days to put himself together and tell the world that Tinubu had frustrated his senate election ambition and thus opened the gate for Jarigbe for what may end up being an unopposed election for the current senator.
In a statement on Monday, Ayade wrote: “Recall I was invited to return to Abuja for a high-level national consultation with the presidency. From the sequence of events that followed my return, Mr President wants me to withhold my Senate ambition. I yield to his request even as I pour tears of ill treatment and agony.
“I trust that Mr President may not be aware that the people who turned our churches against Ayade and all of us in APC over the Muslim Muslim ticket and accused us of islamisation of Cross River State are the beneficiaries of his instruction
Mr President may not be aware that the beneficiaries of his order are people armed against us with guns and machetes in the collation centres(police records available) on the day of Mr President’s election.
“Mr President may recall that I was the first APC Governor in the whole of South South Nigeria that built the new APC that we enjoy today.
I worked assiduously for the party and delivered almost 40,000 votes above PDP in the Presidential election, first in the history of our State. For over three years, I have been sidelined without appointment.
“I donated generously to the National Convention, gave out vehicles and motorbikes to the party and I am currently embarked on a free transportation scheme as campaign support for the President come 2027.
“Mr President may recall that when I decamped to APC, I was the first APC Governor to ask that Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu be given the right of first refusal as our 2023 presidential candidate.”
In apparent reference to Jarigbe, Ayde said “let Us draw our pride and sense of esteem from the fact that Our Opposition that went from church to church to turn the church against Ayade and all of us accusing us of islamisation of Cross River State has now come to join us under the same condition. For me,this is an open admission of defeat by my opponent.
“To be ask to yield the ticket to the same persons that called us muslims and brandishing guns and machetes at collation centres against us is most traumatizing.
Yielding ticket to a newest entrant from opposition just under 5 months is a spiritual murder that cannot go unaddressed by our father in heaven.
We would support all our APC candidates if the President insist to go ahead with his orders of which we know he will not as a fair and balanced father. We would join hands with our president and governor to deliver APC at all levels in the State if that remains the permanent position of Mr President.
“To my opponent, using political opponents in high places to influence presidential order against me is victory in cowardice. I do not feel a sense of defeat instead I feel a sense of pity for our nation.
“As a governor, I made sure the state chairmanship and Deputy Governorship went to Yala and Ogoja respectively in our sister constituency 1 when they were both zoned to Cross River North even though I had the power to take them to Constituency 2.
This spirit of being your brother’s keeper is a law of nature and once broken the grace would depart from you.”
Then, to his followers, he said: “Let us be lifted in our spirits and place our hope in God.
Our show of restrain even in strength is not a weakness
Thank you so much for your organic support and I do not take it for granted. We are together now and forever.
“Let us be patient with Mr president until our matter is resolved.
On the issue of purchase of form, I suggest that my supporters should not buy the form as I’ll be guilty of going against the order of Mr President. The Bible instructs believers in Romans 13:1-7 to submit to Governing authority and equally states that all authority is established by God. 1 Peter 2:13-17 urges submission to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, including kings and governors.”
In a swift reaction, however, Jarigbe has told Ayade to lick his wounds quietly, without pointing accusing fingers at anybody, for failing to get the APC ticket. Calling him a liar, Jarigbe said Ayade was rather being hypocritical, having reprimanded him in the past for dressing like a muslim.
“A man who admonished me for dressing in Hausa traditional attire and referred to my Hausa outfit as a display of a split personality, cannot claim to be a lover of the Muslims more than me. He displayed resentment for the Muslims, even registered his dislike for the traditional attire used by Muslims.
“Senator Ayade should stop his lies. The Muslims in Cross River North voted for me against Ayade. He is known for ethnic jingoism. Ayade lost Cross River North to us , when I was in PDP.
“We won my senate seat, two House of Representatives seats and four house of assembly seats. Senator Ayade, as sitting governor, won only the house of assembly seat in his immediate state constituency. We are not political weaklings. We come with votes. We have votes for the party, because we have worked for our people.
“Senator Ayade lied when he said he worked for Mr president in 2023. He took part in the presidential primary election and lost woefully to PBAT. He refused to step down in the general election, he lost Cross River State to the opposition. Why is he lying?
“Ayade quit the senate seat to go for governorship, when it was the turn of the north to produce a governor. He feels too entitled, even when he is of no political value at the moment. I am surprised that he is quoting the Bible selectively; but I want him to look at Lamentations 3:36 & 37- when he was governor, he forgot God.
“Let it be on record that, Senator Ayade only left PDP for APC, after we collected the PDP structure from him. He felt empty, displaced and dejected. He did not leave for the love of APC. Senator Ayade deserves no reward. He emptied our treasury and wants another opportunity to deprive our people of effective representation.”
