The Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu, has taken Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State to the cleaners.
The first class monarch blamed the governor for the massive looting, destruction and vandalism of public and private properties in Calabar and other parts of the state last weekend, suggesting that “the governor lacks administrative skills”.
The Obong made the statement when he received former Governor Liyel Imoke and his delegation in his palace.
The monarch blamed the governor for not holding regular security meeting, which he believed was partly responsible for the incident.
He said: “Why is this happening to us? It is because politicians have failed. And if I had my way, I could have said, this governor, should wait, let’s set up an interim administration then he starts learning on how administrations are actually done,” he said.
“He should be holding security meetings regularly. This thing would not have happened if he had called the security people together after hearing what happened in Lagos and other places. If he had called them together and told them, ‘look my friends; nothing should happen in my state’, the calamity would have been averted.
“The key is that there has to be a change of attitude, every one of you should have access to the governor. Now that we have professor and professor in administrative set up, we expected that we should have the best. The governor should be able to open his door for people to come in, and should work with everybody.”
