Duke, Imoke at ‘war’ over guber race

The age-long re­lationship be­tween Governor Liyel Imoke and his predecessor, Mr. Donald Duke seems to have broken down as the latter has taken a swipe at the processes adopted by the party leadership in Cross River to select the next governor.

There has been no love lost between the two friends.
While Imoke insists that his successor must be a member of the PDP family and chosen by the people, Duke contends that major­ity of the PDP members have been shut out through the processes put in place by the leadership headed by Imoke to choose the next governor.
Addressing a political rally on Thursday at the Holy Child Girls’ Second­ary School in Calabar, Duke, who handed over power to the incumbent in 2007, said he cannot un­derstand the real meaning of PDP family being ban­died about as his adminis­tration accommodated all shades of opinions unlike now.
Duke said it is unaccept­able for a few privileged people to hijack power to the detriment of all Cross Riverians, stressing that it is only change of baton to the wish of the people that can salvage the state and the PDP.
He said, “I don’t know the meaning of the word family. I know better still the meaning of the word, PDP family. You see in 1999, when we assumbed office, we were not all in PDP. So there were some in APP as at then and of course there were others in PDP. My first task as gov­ernor was to bring all of Cross River to PDP family. I was the chief executive of that family.
“I was the head of that family. And by the time I left in 2007, all of us, all of Cross River State resided in one family.
Now, families, when they get very large, they have challenges, but the only way one can keep everybody together is by showing leadership; by be­ing honest, by being forth­right and being straight forward. Members of the family should not guess what the leader or lead­ers or elders of the family think. They should know. You don’t guess what God wants of you.”