Th Gale of Extortion In C'River Under Ayade By Inyali Peter

Governor Ben Ayade

For about two months now, I decided not to actively criticise Governor Ben Ayade. This was because of series of plea and discussion with some of his supporters who claimed the Governor was distracted by the high level of criticism he gets on social media.

Since my motive of pointing the ills in his administration is not aimed at discrediting him as a person or for some obnoxious reasons, I decided to stay action to see how credibly he will perform. 

But unfortunately, events have shown that such story was concocted by his supporters to paint a picture only them understand. In fact, it was one of the fallacies of this government. Because within this my recess period nothing has really happened but a lot have gone wrong. 

And within this period, I successfully conducted over seven investigations that when I bring to public domain everybody will understand that we need prayers now as a people more than before. 

Some people may be thinking that we have entered one chance but the reality is that if we were in one chance with Ayade it would have been better. One is greater than zero so I will rather prefer we accept that unless divine intervention, Cross River has entered zero chance.

Amongst other issus that spurred me to concluding that Ayade may be  taking Cross Riverians for granted is the gale of extortion going on in the state under his watch. 

Few months after he assumed office, Ayade in his usual characteristic of playing deceitful politics pronounced that he was lifting the 23 years embargo on employment into the state civil service. As expected, he ordered the sale of forms to job seekers not with the aim of employing them but with a secret agenda of extorting them. Forms were sold at the rate of N1,200 to thousands of hundreds of Cross Riverians. Over one year later, the issue has died a natural death like all his promises.

If this government was a responsible one, Ayade would have honourably ordered the return of the monies paid if government is not ready to employ. I said if he is not ready because I am aware of vacancies everywhere. In fact, he has created over 10 new ministries which requires adequate man power to function but has refused to employ after collecting money for forms.

Apart from this, Ayade also deceived Cross Riverians that he was forming a security team called Green Police. At the initial inauguration of the organization when he marked his one year anniversary, Ayade said out of thousands of people that applied, only 1,500 were qualified and recruited. Known for incessant deceits, Ayade recommissioned only 10 people who were not even part of the screening exercise that produced the 1,500.

He hyped this on media until I exposed him that only ten people as against the 1,500 he was feeding the public were recommissioned. Eevn the ten people now have gone awo owing to the order of illegality by the Inspector General of Police which I suspect strongly that Ayade has a hand. He may have realised that the organization was not feasible so as a sharp man, he lobbied the Police to stop help him stop.

This is so because the reality remains that the intention was not to set up any security outfit but to hoodwink Cross Riverians to paying for the A-4 paper they got for recruitment forms. If this was not the case, why didn't the governor consult widely before coming with such name?Why has he not said or done anything about it since then? Even when he was reminded by journalists during a media parley that the name was improper, he abused the hail out of them. He pridefully said he was a lawyer and also a Professor so can not be subjected to consultation on any issue.

But today, both the people he alleged didn't make the screening, the 1,500  he commissioned in May 29 and the ten he later commissioned again are grumbling in pains and agony for the deceit and abandonment.

If Ayade was ever serious in engaging them, he would have may be given them automatic civil service jobs or convert them to DOPT and still post them to perform the same functions he claimed he was creating the organization for. But since the IGP gave order which I suspect was at the behest of the governor, Ayade has gone to sleep, abandoning these people completely.

The ordeal of tailoring shop (Garment Factory) applicants is a story for another day. 

Apart from defrauding applicants, what has become a consistent trend with Ayade's government is the unnecessary extortion of poor civil servants. They are made to pay for almost everything and the prices for these things are always overblown.

Few months ago, the stat government imposed a scam code named "Ayadecare" on civil servants. Even when they publicly revolted against this during a public hearing organized by the ministry of Information and Orientation, the government has gone ahead to impose the compulsory deduction of N1000 every month in the name of "Ayadecare". If Ayade truly cares, he should run the program free for these poor people whose salaries cannot be compared to the enormity of challenges confronting them.

If Ayade truly cares, he should use government funds that he has been using to junket from one country to another to sponsor medical trips for vulnerable Cross Riverians. 

Amba Patrick, an erudite aluta warlord and a promising Cross Riverian had accident that affected his spinal cord last year and even after several plea, he was ignored by the state government. But for his parents and some of his big friends, only God knows what would have happened to that pragmatic and intelligent young leader.

Again, during the promotion exercise last year, civil servants were compelled to pay N2,700-N4,7000 for promotion forms. After the irregularities that engulfed the process, they are now being charged again to pay N2,000 for their promotion letters. What exactly are they paying for? Can government give us account of all these extortions? 

How sure are we that all the monies goes to the state coffers? Is Ayade playing the politics of playing Peter to pay Paul by paying them and using indirect means of retrieving the money? These and many more questions need to be answered.

It is very worrisome that in the face of all these injustices, harassment and intimidation, the state Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress have remained mum. Is it true that the labour is now acting like a government agency? Is the body observing table manners? Is the leadership not aware of these issues? Is Ayade too powerful to be confronted by the union? 

As events continue to unfold, the truth will come out on the reason behind the gale of extortion in Cross River State.