Unpaid Mobilisation Fee: Students Beat Up Cross River Governor’s Aide

A Special Assistant to Governor Ben Ayade on Student Matters, Mr. Michael Abuo, was on Monday beaten up by a crowd of higher institution students from Cross River State for allegedly withholding N300,000 that was given for ‘mobilisation.’

The incident happened at the U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar during a reception in honour of the governor following the December 9 Supreme Court ruling which validated Ayade’s election.

The students, numbering over 100, were said to be aggrieved that Abuo refused to release the alleged N300,000 which the governor was said to have promised them to join in celebrating his victory.

It was gathered that the governor gave N1m to each of the 29 commissioners and some other aides to mobilise the people for the victory celebration in Calabar.

The governor’s aide took to his heels when the crowd of students overpowered him.

He jumped over the stadium fence into the hands of the Police who rescued him and scared off the students.

One of the students from the University of Calabar, who simply gave her name as Josephine, said they had appealed to the aide to release the fund, but he refused.

She said, “We got the information from a reliable source that the governor approved N300,000 for us for mobilisation, but he refused to release the money.

“We are over 200 that came from different parts of the state for this celebration. Instead of releasing the money, he became infuriated when we confronted him. He has been short-changing us for too long.”

When contacted on telephone, Abuo said the attack was sponsored; adding that it was not true that he squandered the students’ financial entitlements.