The Hausa/Fulani community in Ogoja in the northern senatorial district of Cross River State has declared total support for the Senatorial ambition of the state Governor, Prof Ben Ayade.
The governor who represented Cross River North in the Senate between 2011 and 2015 is the senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in next year’s election.
Speaking during a solidarity visit to the governor yesterday, the community led by Sarkin Yakubu Adamu, also vowed bloc votes for all candidates of the APC from top to bottom.
According to him, Ayade’s detribalised nature makes him a natural candidate for the Hausa/ Fulani community.
“We are supporting you and we are going to vote for you for the Senate. You are our candidate because you see every Nigerian as one; you have particularly shown love to the Hausa/ Fulani in Cross River.
“We will vote for you as Senator and also vote for all candidates of the APC next year”, the Sarkin Adamu said.
He commended the governor for not signing the anti-Open Grazing law which he said restricts legitimate occupation of the Fulani.
Responding, the governor commended the community for the visit and its commitment to his senatorial ambition saying it showed that religion cannot divide Nigeria.
Religion, he said “should not be a source of division but a source of unity. I cannot related with my brother on the basis of religion. I am a Christian because I was born into a Christian home in Southern Nigeria and you are a moslem because you were born into a moslem home in Northern Nigeria, so we cannot become enemies because of inherited religions.
“If you are born here, grew up here, whether you are Igbo, Hausa, Fulani or Yoruba, as far as I’m concerned, you are a Cross Riverian.”
The governor praised the Hausa/Fulani community for acknowledging that no Cross governor in history has given the Hausa/Fulani community in the state recognition the way he has done and pledged to do more.
Ayade commended the community for partnering with the state government in checkmating criminal herdsmen from coming into the state by documenting and profiling new herdsmen upon arrival.
This he said, accounts for the prevailing harmony between herders and their hosts in various Cross River communities.
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