Sen Ekpenyong, Orok Duke Fight Dirty Over N100m NDDC Christmas Palliative For C'River Youths, Women

By Ndifreke BASSEY 

Cold war is brewing between Sen. Asuquo Ekpenyong and Hon.Orok Otu Duke over one hundred million Naira Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Christmas palliatives to youths and women in Cross River state.

Ekpenyong, who represents Cross River Senatorial district, is querying the list of beneficiaries, insisting that stakeholders must sit down and screen the list in question, while Orok Duke, commissioner representing Cross River in NDDC board, is accusing the Senator of being a meddlesome interloppper.

This development has led to in-fighting and mudslinging between the duo just as their media aides and supporters have gone to town with different stories defending their pay-masters depending on the side of divide one belongs to.

Trouble started when some stakeholders including the Senator got wind that the commissioner (Orok Otu Duke) had submitted names of beneficiaries without recourse to them and then questioned the rational behind Duke's action.

The stakeholders expressed worry at the way and manner Duke is handling the palliative issues, adding that the last experience with handling of rice palliative given when Sen. Goodwill Akpabio was the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs did not go down well with the beneficiaries.

They alleged that Orok Duke single-handed shared the rice palliatives again without recourse to some people who were supposed to be part of the process of sharing neither did he disclose the sharing formula as well as those who benefited.

It is against this background that the Senator demanded to know who are the beneficiaries and the sharing formula to avoid past mistakes and to ensure even distribution of the Christian palliative to Cross Riverians.

In a statement by Charles Ekanem, Media Aide to Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong, Duke was allegedly accused of being nepotistic in compiling the list of beneficiaries of the N100,000,000 Christmas cash palliative.

The statement read in part: "A cursory review of the list shows that it is filled up with his family members names and those of his very close associates.

"When told by the Commission headquarters to sit down with other stakeholders to substantiate and reconcile the list, he has typically been avoidant of all stakeholders for several days and has resorted to blackmailing the Senator.

"Anybody that knows Orok Otu Duke knows that this is his stock in trade. Ostensibly, Orok Otu Duke hopes that the attendant pressure of blackmailing the Senator will lead to the Commission paying him and his family members the N100,000,000 from where he intends to give out paltry handouts of N20,000 to a few groups.

"Fortunately for the general public, this push for transparency is in its general interest as it is demanded that the final list of beneficiaries of the N100,000,000 be published and publicly circulated to ensure accountability. 

"This is to avoid what befell the traditional rulers of the state after it was reported that Orok Duke delivered 54 bags of Rice and 14 Cartons of Power Oil to all the traditional rulers in the state after N50,000,000 was assigned for same beneficiaries.

Contradictorily, Orok writes that the Senator is working against the developmental interest of the State and her people but in the same breath states that the Senator is aggressively developing the state through solar light interventions and road construction projects.

"Over the last 6 months it has been clear to the blind and audible to the deaf that this first time Senator has unprecedentedly been delivering on his mandate. From attracting over 70 projects to his district, to lawmaking, to the representation of his people in the hallowed chambers and ultimately in his oversight functions.

"The Senator has, is and will continue to work with the Leader of the Party in the State, Governor Bassey Otu for the greater interests of the people of the State.

"Any attempt by Orok Otu Duke to cause a rift between them for his personal enrichment is an exercise in futility, the N100,000,000 Christmas palliative for the people of Cross River State will indeed go to the people of Cross River State. This is what Orok Otu Duke fears and is attempting blackmail to avoid."