AGF drags Gov Ayade, aides to Police, DSS

Gov Ben Ayade of Cross River State 

· Alleges threat to assassinate opponents

· Petitions of severe corruption flood EFCC

The Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Feder­ation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN), has dragged the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade and some of his principal aides to the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Force Headquarters over allegations of threats of bodily harm to and assassination of his political op­ponents in the state.

There are also sundry charg­es of corruption and abuse of of­fice levelled against the gover­nor.

A letter, referenced HAGF/DSS/2017/Vol.1/15 from the Of­fice of the Attorney-General of the Federation, dated Septem­

 ber 26, 2017 and titled: “Request for Investigation” was directed to the Director-General of the DSS, requesting the DSS to in­vestigate petitions which the AGF’s office had received, al­leging that “some top govern­ment officials, particularly Mr. Martin Orim, the Chief of Staff to the Executive Governor; Mr. Jude Ngaji, SSA to the Gover­nor on Security Matters and Mr. Frank Ayade, brother to the governor respectively, are stra­tegically planning the assas­sination of one Mr. Paul Ifere, having failed on the assassina­tion attempt against one Dr. Jo­seph Odok”.

A similar request letter, HAGF/IGP/207?VOL.1/17 was also on the same date, addressed to the Inspector-General of Po­lice (IGP) in his Abuja office.

Sent along with the Office of the Attorney-General’s peti­tion, which was signed on be­half of the AGF by Okoi Obon-Obla, the Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the President on Prose­cution, was a recorded compact disc, which as the AGF office said, “captures the conversa­tion between the petitioner and a source within the Government House”, in Calabar, who, based on the letter from the AGF’s of­fice, “reported the assassination plan of some indigenes of Cross River State that have openly op­posed the bad government poli­cies in Cross River State.”

The letter from the Office of the AGF also brought to the at­tention of the law enforcement agencies that the alleged assas­sination attempt against the said Dr. Joseph Odok was “alleged­ly carried out by one Mr. Raph­ael Odu, the Director-General of Homeland Security, a securi­ty outfit controlled by the Cross River State Government.”

In light of these, the AGF requested the DSS and the Ni­geria Police to carry out a thor­ough investigation in order to ascertain the veracity or other­wise of the allegations contained in the petitions which were in­cluded. Also included was the bare-bodied photograph of Dr. Joseph Odok, show stab wounds on the right upper arm and on the chest.

Our investigation team in Cross River State received re­ports of several allegations of high-handedness and intimi­dation against people who are believed the political opponents of Governor Ayade and his ad­ministration to the extent that even businesses owned by those opponents and which are said to be providing elusive jobs to the Cross Riverians have been alleg­edly targeted and shut down on very flimsy pretexts.

The AUTHORITY was told by sources in Calabar that many prominent persons who have criticised any policy of gov­ernment or joins another party apart from the governor’s Peo­ples Democratic Party (PDP), automatically stands on Ayade’s firing line and even runs a risk to his life. “Ditto for anybody who the governor and his henchmen perceive to be engaged in any enterprise that poses any real or imagined competition to the many business involvements of the governor”, one source told our reporter.

Incidentally, as was alleged to our reporter, some of Gov­ernor Ayade’s major opponents are well placed individuals from his home town, Obudu, among whom, is Chief Goddy Jeddi-Agba, reputed to be the highest employer of labour in the state through his different invest­ments, especially in the agro-re­lated field. It was alleged that be­cause Agba, an All progressives Congress (APC) member who might also be eyeing the Gov­ernment House has invariably incurred the wrath of the gov­ernor.

It was reported that the Cal­abar City FM, recently set up by Mr. Jeddi-Agba was shut down for no discernible reason, while wagging tongues in the state widely claim that the station was closed because it is situated di­rectly opposite the Mega Hilton Hotel, allegedly owned by the governor, in Calabar.

In a similar development, the owner of Hit FM in Cala­bar, Tony Ugbe, was reported­ly kidnapped a few months ago, raising allegations that he might have suffered his fate on account of the regular attack of the poli­cies of the Ayade administration by the vibrant FM station.

In addition to allegations against the Ayade administra­tion being currently investigated by the Police and the DSS at the highest levels, The AUTHORI­TY has it on absolute authori­ty that the files of the Economic and Financial Crimes Com­mission (EFCC) have been in­undated with petitions against sundry allegations of different magnitudes of corrupt prac­tices and abuse of office lev­elled against Ayade, his officials and cronies, among who is his younger brother who has been accused by some of those peti­tioners as acting like a “co-gov­ernor” in the committal of the alleged corrupt practices with his brother and his aides.

Our sources at the EFCC confirmed that in August last year, following petitions over how the money from the bailout funds from the Federal Govern­ment to the state was misused, Mr. Frank Ayade, was picked up by the EFCC and detained for one week before his brother (the governor) allegedly intervened.

In fact, by last count, our investigations showed that the EFCC is currently investigating at least eight key cases of cor­rupt practices against the Ayade administration.

Competent sources at the Economic Governance Team at the EFCC confirmed the de­velopment, saying: “Yes, there are several petitions against the governor. We have investi­gated and concluded about five but we cannot do anything now because the governor is pro­tected under Section 306 of the 1999 Constitution (as amend­ed) that granted him immunity from criminal and civil prose­cution. But we have secured the file which will be reopened at the appropriate time.”

Culled from Authority Newspaper