We have read many times with total levity and disdain, several articles written and circulated on social media by a controversial Chieftain of our great party(APC), Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, who claims to love and sacrificed for Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu and the APC, more than any other person from Central Senatorial District. Those articles are not only ridiculous, disparaging and disdainful but also a calculated attempt to blackmail and pulldown the hard-earned reputation of those who were carefully appointed as committee members of the Special Taskforce on Anti-Deforestation by His Excellency, and bestowed with executive mandate to protect our forests and its biodiversity. His petitions against the committee and its activities are watery and lacks substance, it should be backed-up with copious evidences rather than mere hearsays. Obono Obla should be called to order, there’s need for him to desist from this politics of hate and perdition.
Although, the content of his write-ups are obvious bitterness and pettiness to sound & serious minded people, it should be be treated as an intellectual trash, but it is also pertinent to remind him that, he lacks the moral uprightness to question integrity since he hasn’t removed the log in his own eyes. We haven’t forgotten in a hurry how he was fired by President Buhari for bribery and later arraigned by ICPC for certificate forgery. Obono Obla’s overbearing impunity was largely responsible for the failure of The Special Presidential Panel on Recovery of Public Properties(SPIP) under President Buhari and made Cross River State to lost a vital position at the national level.
The agitation from Obono-Obla and his accomplices, and all those calling on the Governor to lift the ban on logging is very wrongful and detrimental to the well-being of our dear state. Any attempt to legalize Timber logging in CRS will deteriorate our forest completely and tarnish the good leadership record of Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu. The taskforce committee is working effectively and the first of it kind some weeks ago, impounded 32 trucks of illegally logged woods and handed over defaulters to state government for necessary disciplinary actions. They should be encouraged and given time to deliver on their mandates. Governor Otu is an experience leader, we believe he will not be distracted by political jobbers who are aggrieved because they haven’t been called to eat, but will rather allow his aides prove their competencies in discharging their duties in the field.
Please someone should respectfully tell Barr Obla that he’s elder stateman and mustn’t attain political menopause, Cross Riverians will be happy to see him at the peripheral of National politics, that is the level he should be interested now and let Sen Prince Bassey Edet Otu succeed.
God bless Cross River State.
Howard
