Ben Ayade said on Monday that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu asked him to withdraw from the senatorial race, and the former Cross River governor said he would obey even though he was deeply unhappy with the decision. Ayade said the instruction came after a high-level consultation with the Presidency in Abuja, then told supporters not to buy nomination forms for the Senate race for now.
“Mr President wants me to withhold my Senate ambition. I yield to his request even as I pour tears of ill treatment and agony,” Ayade said. He added that he had been sidelined without appointment for over three years and warned that “yielding ticket to a newest entrant from opposition just under five months is a spiritual murder.”
The former governor also said, “Let us tarry and honour Mr President even as we still appeal for the review of his order,” and urged his backers not to move ahead with the Senate forms. He said, “I suggest that my supporters should not buy the form as I’ll be guilty of going against the order of Mr President,” while pledging that, “We would support all our APC candidates… and join hands with our President and Governor to deliver APC at all levels in the State.”
Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe answered with a sharp rebuttal on Monday, accusing Ayade of misrepresenting facts and trying to reshape his political record. Jarigbe said Ayade had previously criticised his choice of traditional attire, insisted his own support base cut across religious and ethnic lines, and said he enjoyed significant backing from Muslim voters across Cross River North. He said his political structure had secured seats in the Senate, House of Representatives and State Assembly, adding: “We are not political weaklings. We come with real votes because we have worked for our people.”
Jarigbe also said Ayade lost the presidential primaries, refused to step aside and then lost his state to the opposition, before calling him “a political disaster” and saying local voters would never back him again. He said there was no formal arrangement governing rotation of the Cross River North senatorial seat. Ayade’s case rests on his claim that he was the first APC governor in the South-South region and that he helped strengthen the party in Cross River, where he said he delivered almost 40,000 votes above the PDP in the presidential election. Jarigbe rejected that account, and for now Ayade has told supporters to wait rather than file forms, a sign the race may not be over even if he has stepped back from it.
