The Obong of Calabar, His Eminence Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu (V) has blamed the governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade for deliberately refusing to hold security meetings leading to the massive looting, destruction and vandalism of public and private properties in Calabar and other parts of the state last weekend.

The Obong made the statement  weekend  when he received former Governor Liyel Imoke and his delegation in his palace in Calabar the Cross River State capital.   

The monarch lamented that in the light of current insecurity in the country, no leader will watch and not take proactive measures to prevent what was happening in other States from replicating itself in Calabar. 

He therefore berated the governor for not holding regular security meetings, which he believed was partly responsible for the incident. 

“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 tell them, look my friends; nothing should happen in my state. The calamity would have been averted. 

He called out politicians for not living up to expectations:  “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,” suggesting that the governor lacks administrative skills. 

 “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.”