Buhari shutdown Calabar as mammoth crowd receives him for campaign

Crowd in J.U Esuene stadium for APC Presidential rally

Calabar, the capital city of Cross River State, was totally lock down yesterday with series of political activities as mammoth crowd came out to receive President Muhammadu Buhari for his re-election campaign rally in the state.

The 16000 capacity J.U Esuene stadium, venue for the rally was filled to the brim with many supporters hanging outside, chanting different solidarity song in support of the APC and President Buhari.

There was also gridlock in major streets and roads in Calabar as a result of the overwhelming crowd.

The President while presenting his speech assured Nigerians of healthy and improved economy in his second term even as he disclosed that he has directed Banks to give soft loans to boost small scale businesses across the federation.

The President added that he will continue to fight corruption which he said was hindering the development of the country.

He added that his administration will continue to work to separate looters from hardworking Nigerians as without that the next generation of youths will think that stealing public fund was a career.

National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhone in his remarks slammed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for ceding Bakassi, in Bakassi local government area of the State to Cameroun.

Adams said that history will not forgive the APC led administration if they don't have the courage to punish Obasanjo for all the crimes he committed against Nigerians.

He said that “I want to remind the People of Cross River State that never, ever can you afford to forget a Nigerian leader in the person of former President Olusegun Obasenjo who ceded part of Cross River State to Cameroon because he was pursuing a noble peace prize award.

“He handed over Nigerian territory to foreign country and reduced Nigeria to become refugees. The lady that presented a gift to Mr President has no home; Obasanjo ceded her community to Cameroon”.

He maintained that "There is no statesman in the world that will voluntary cede parts of his territory to another country just because he needed noble peace prize award. If we are too weak to punish him, history will punish him.

“We cannot forget someone who separated families, those who give the noble peace prize award, don’t give it to traitors, they gave it to people who had work hard, not for traitors, not for opportunist and not for those who bastardised their father land”.

Also speaking, Acting Chairman of the party in the State, Sir John Ochala said that the state was ripe for the APC clinch in the next election because of the poor performance of the Gov. Ben Ayade administration.

He reminded Buhari that the supper highway and the rice city which the President performed groundbreaking and commissioning respectively on were also scam.

Ochala also urged President Buhari to caution his Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Pastor Usani Usani whom he said was destabilizing the party in the state.