Cross River: How Duke, Imoke, Bassey fell apart

As gladiators from different political parties begin to mount the rostrum to campaign either for themselves or for their favoured candidates for the 2019 governorship election in Cross River State, what comes to mind of many in the state is how the relationship between two former governors of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke and Senator Liyel Imoke became soiled to the extent that the two recently took to the social media to wash their dirty linen in the public.

Reports had it that Duke, Imoke and Gershom Bassey, had prior to the 1999 general elections sat at the Ikoyi, Lagos residence of Senator Liyel Imoke to plan on how they would play prime roles in the politics of their state – Cross River in the Fourth Republic.

The trio therefore, agreed to return to the state and contest for executive positions, which will allow leadership succession over a 24 year period between three of them. According to Duke, part of the decision reached at the meeting then was that should one person become governor, the position would be rotated until all three experience executive leadership before it could be allowed to get into the hands of “a stranger.”

It was on the basis of this that Duke was allowed to take the first shot at power and he was elected during the 1999 governorship election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He went ahead to spend eight years in office (1999-2007).

However, it was gathered that Duke, towards the end of his eight year tenure, was reluctant to hand over to Imoke, who was then Minister of Power and Steel in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. But Imoke, who at time was the most politically experienced among the trio, found a way round the hurdle and became governor in 2007, also on the platform of the PDP.

New Telegraph, December 11, 2018

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