The Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Otu, on Saturday asked Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, to step aside and learn the act of governance.
The monarch, who made the call when the former governor of the state, Liyel Imoke, visited him at his palace, blamed the governor for the vandalism, looting, and destruction of public and private property in the state last week.
The Obong, according to reports, declared that Ayade needed to step aside and allow an interim administration to come up so that he could learn governance.
The monarch said: “He (Ayade) has not been holding security meeting 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 governor should be able to open his door for people to come in, and should work with everybody. We have to face it; we don’t need to play around with it and we cannot continue this way. You tell him that there is a need for total reconciliation; a total rehabilitation of whatever he has been doing.
“Everybody matters in this state. He should be able to talk to people. He wouldn’t call you and even when you call him, he doesn’t answer the call. Nobody talks to him”.
In his address, Imoke told the Obong that he visited him to seek help and cooperation of the traditional institution in finding a way out of the problem.
The ex-governor said he was directly affected by the crisis which trailed the #EndSARS protests after his wife’s shop was vandalised by suspected hoodlums.
He said: “We came to get some advice from you before we even set out to look for solutions, to ensure that this never happens again in Cross River State.
“We need your guidance as we go about looking for solutions to the challenge of young people who are unemployed and have grievances; young people who think they don’t have the opportunities others have had.
“We do not understand the extent of the carnage. We are all victims of this incident. If you were not hit directly, you were hit indirectly. For me, I was hit directly. So were very many public officials. They were also hit directly.”
