He stated that Cross River State is not poor and did not lack financial resources as claimed by the state leadership.
Addressing surging crowds of supporters and journalists at his campaign office, Prince Otu said: “Anybody telling you that Cross River State is poor or that there is no money in this state is not telling the truth and has a lot to hide.
“I challenge anybody that insists otherwise to a public debate over the income and finances of this state in recent times.
“I am aware of how much is generated within the state and how much comes in regularly.
“Why are they building houses, hotels and flaunting wealth everywhere you turn, thus, depriving the people of much needed government supports?”
Also speaking over the weekend, Prince Hilliard Eta, the National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in charge of South-South Zone, said that Imoke’s administration has thrown the state into perpetual financial enslavement.
Accusing the government of lack of transparency, Eta said: “Gov Imoke has to enlighten us about the true state of our indebtedness. We need to know our real financial standing. Is Cross River State truly bankrupt? This, I doubt much.
“The Governor should account for the private jet he used state funds of over six million Dollars to buy couple of years ago and which due to controversy he abandoned it.
“He should also account for the sum of three billion Naira being sum of money accrued from sale of Carbon Credit from the UN-REDD+ Programme”.
“He has floated N40 billion bonds in order to service alleged mountains of debt”.
But Commissioner for Information, Chief Akin Ricketts, has explained that the floating the bond will not throw the state into financial woes but help it raise more funds and effortlessly defray old debts.
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