Mr Portrait Peterson Asim, a former aide of the immediate past governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade has opened more can of worms on the alleged fraudulent activities of the state governor, Apostle Bassey Edet Otu.
In a series of video shots on social media, the former aide who appears to have so much information on the atrocities of the governor and his wife, Eyoanwan, whom he prefers to call Francisca, noted the misuse of public funds by the governor in various areas.
For example, he spoke about how about N11 billion was approved by the state exco for the construction of the Sweet Mother Street in Ikom, but which funds were diverted and the road left undone, while the governor went to Abuja to announce that the road was completed.
In a previous video, Peterson had revealed how the exco approved funds for the renovation of the office of the governor’s wife, but which funds were also diverted. Specifically, he said about N550 million was siphoned under the pretext of the renovation work, but that the funds were sent to Otu’s wife, herself a bishop in the family church.
He made reference to the recent protest undertaken by natives of Ikom, against the shoddy job done on their road and alleged that Otu, his wife and a few other aides had since diverted the funds, leaving the contractor to do a poor job.
In the video with The Sharks accessed on Wednesday, Peterson said “Let me remind you guys, a few weeks ago I made a post about the lies and irregularities in the Prince Otu-led government. This particular area where people are protesting is located at Ikom, and it is called Sweet Mother Road.
“Remember, I showed you people that during their 3rd-year anniversary they lied to the public about completing many roads, including the Sweet Mother Road at Ikom. I had to send my team from Calabar to Ikom to get comprehensive details of the Sweet Mother Road. Can you imagine? After my investigation, the government said it was a computer error.
“After lying to the gullible people with fake pictures at Ikom, after that they went to change the status from ‘completed’ to ‘ongoing.’ In a bid to make me feel I am lying, they tried to mobilize the contractor.
“And in return, the contractor said ‘we have shared the funds for the project and how do you expect me to go back to the project?’ Then the Commissioner for Works had to threaten him that if he cannot provide a solution to that project, he will not get future contracts.
“That was when the contractor returned back to do a bad job on the Sweet Mother Road. It is a slap to the people of Ikom. If they should allow such a project to stand, I bet you that project will not last for three weeks. They are only interested in their pocket and not the welfare of the people.”
He also displayed copies of the memos to show how the exco approved N11 billion for the road which was not executed until the government’s lies were exposed.
In an earlier video, Peterson had exposed details of how N7 billion was taken out of the coffers of the state government for the renovation of the governor’s lodge.
“All this while I am just looking and laughing because everything happening in the Exco’s the memos and approval especially the fraud of the commissioner for works and Chief of staff after the Cross River state government collected over 7 billion naira from the state account all in the name of renovating Governor office, governor lodge, governor wife’s office
“And Prince Otu government still returned and defrauded the state with additional N541,500,000 additional renovation of the wife office. I will give you full updates and evidence of the memo that was approved from the Exco’s, every fraud is coming from state Exco and I will start displaying all the memo one after another to you people in the coming days.
“Governor Otu told us he needs 5 billion to renovate governor office, State Library, governor lodge and his wife’s office. I was surprised that ‘how can we use N5 billion for just renovation and what will be the cost to build new governor office and other offices and we Cross Riverians kept quiet?’
“The sad reality after collecting five billion for the renovation, they still returned to collect additional five billion for the same projects and it was added to supplementary budget and they said the money is not enough and they returned back to the state Exco using the same commissioner for works Mr Pius , and he tendered another memo requesting for additional N541,500,000 to complete the renovation of the First Lady’s office.”
“This is what’s happening in Cross River state. From approval of renovation to Zenith Bank and then to the First Lady. That’s why I said this government is a scam and they put Bibles in front and claimed the title of Bishop.
“If this Governor has fear of God and use the additional funds collected by his wife and add to the state fire service it would have been better, and since the beginning of this year Cross River State has recorded like four fire cases and if you visit fire service, they will complain of inadequate equipment. The state library was renovated by a family member.
