The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River State has pledged to prevent the privatization of industries in the state by Governor Ben Ayade.

They threatened to rally the public to carry out their plan to halt the privatization program of the present administration.

When Venatius Ikem, Esq. was sworn in as Chairman of the Board of Directors on Wednesday, he made this promise as he took over from the interim government of Barr. Efiok Cobham.

Having been upset by the governor’s pronouncement that the supposed 46 industries that his government has built will be privatized to allow the government to concentrate on governance, Ikem has expressed his displeasure.

“We are going to mobilize the people against the plan of Governor Ayade to privatize all the industries, which are not working, to himself,” Ikem said.

“He used state resources and deceived the people that he was building this or that and now he wants to sell them to himself. We will not allow that.

“We are sounding a note to the governor that the time for him to abuse our people has passed and we will watch closely and mobilize every resource at our disposal to stop any attempt to privatize any industry, whether working or not working to himself.”

Mr. Donald Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, has challenged the new Executive Committee of the party, led by Venatius Ikem, to open the party’s doors to others who wish to join the organization.

According to Duke, the committee’s litmus test would be the election to fill the vacant post of Ogoja/Yala federal constituency that was left vacant by Jarigbe Agom’s departure for the Senate.

He said, “There are so many things that make people decamp from a party; among them are injustice and non-transparency. You must avoid them and use the Ogoja/Yala vacancy as the first test of your committee’s success.

“The mandate was given to the PDP and the offices – governor, senator and house of reps are only agents of the party so what you have is where an agent steals the property of the principal, 2023 is more than governorship, in fact, it all about all the offices as well as the 196 wards in the state.”