Former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters and the leader of the Bakassi people, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, on Tuesday said she moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with Governor Ben Ayade to lift her people out of poverty.
She said it was incumbent upon her to do all she can to ameliorate the hardship her people are going through.
Ita-Giwa was responding to a columnist and the Publisher of an online business magazine, The Alvin Report, Mr Joseph Edgar, who had queried her defection to the APC and accepting an ambassadorial position from the governor.
She said in a statement: “At 75 years of age, nothing will please me more than to relax and enjoy my celebrity status, attend events in eye-popping outfits and so on, but when a very driven digital governor like Senator Ben Ayade comes along with such verve and a vision that will lift my people and state out of perennial poverty, I am left with no option than to support him.
Cross River State has had to bear the brunt of many economic setbacks, the loss of our oil fields, then more poignantly to me personally was the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon.
“In my position as a leader, it is incumbent on me to do all in my power to ameliorate the hardship my people are going through.
“In doing this I don’t mind being occasionally misunderstood by people who do not feel the pinch.
“Industrialisation holds the key to unlocking the vast potentials of my people and state.
“I, therefore, will not hesitate to do all that I can to promote it, which is why I accepted to be the Cross River State Ambassador for Industrial Projects, even at the risk of being mocked by less discerning pundits.
“By the special grace of God, over the years I have amassed tons of goodwill both nationally and internationally and I believe now is the time to put it to good use on behalf of my state.
“I fully intend to give this assignment my best, as I see it as the only path to the economic liberation of my people.”
