Government News Source|30 September 2018
It was a walk over for Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State yesterday as he easily emerged the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for next year's governorship election.
Ayade, who was the sole aspirant, garnered 1927 votes in the primary election that involved delegates from the 18 local government areas in the state at the U.J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar., venue of the primary.
2001 delegates where accredited for the exercise with 10 voided votes. Speaking moments after the result was announced, the governor attributed the outcome to the will of God.
According to him, this "is purely the will of God. You can see the overwhelming acceptance from the people through my party and I'm happy that my people can appreciate my little effort so far in transforming the socio-economic landscape of the state. I came with the mission to restructure the economy of the state. The outcome of the exercise is clearly an endorsement of what I had started. I want to assure Cross Riverians that I am poised to complete the economic restructuring of the state."
According to the economy, "everyone is so enthusiastic to participate in the primary to reelect me and I can only say that, it's God's will. One thing you must know is that, the people have only come here to vote according their conscious in spite of the fact that I am the only aspirant for the election."
He described the primary as a family affair, stating that the massive turnout was an affirmation that Cross River PDP remains strong and united.
Speaking on the exercise, the chairman of the PDP Gubernatorial Electoral Committee to Cross River State, Hon. Olorogun Taleb Tebite described it as peaceful, transparent, free and fair.
His words: "This is surprising, marvelous and very overwhelming to see massive turnout of delegates participate in this primary election which is more like an affirmation to return our digital Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade back to Government House."
Continuing, Tabite said: "Delegates have been so calm since they arrived this venue and have conducted themselves maturely to vote as their conscious will direct them. We must applaud Cross River delegates and the state Governor Ben Ayade for the public display of maturity and true Cross River spirit of peaceful and hospitable people."
The State chairman of PDP, Ntufam Inok Edim Inok explained that the massive turnout was a demonstration of love for the governor whom he noted has performed wonderfully well and deserved a second term to consolidate on the gains already recorded.
"Ayade has touched so many lives through his industrialization projects that have already yielded employment of over 10,000 persons in the state. That is why we are all here to affirm the reelection of this visionary."
