Tag Archives: Governor Ayade

Cross River: Gov. Ayade Suspends Commercial Drivers’ Levies

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Cross River State governor, Prof Ben Ayade, Wednesday suspended all levies paid by commercial drivers in the state.
The governor gave the order when members of the Unified Commercial Drivers Association in the state protested alleged the impounding of their vehicles, multiple taxation and a levy hike in his office in Calabar Wednesday.
Ayade who sent the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Tina Agbor, to speak on his behalf said, “All your cars will be released. All the levies would be suspended, until the governor gets the papers and looks at them properly. When that is done, we would tell you what to pay.”
Chairman of the Association, Pastor Thomas Effiong Okon, who led the protesters, said, “We have always been supportive of the government. We have registered without complain. We gave government the support. We are not outsiders but part and parcel of the system. But it is an abnormality for people to sit on us because of their political appointments.

“On Monday we woke up and we saw our tickets had risen to N500 daily from N400. The N400 was even too high for us and we were even negotiating how to sort it out and the next thing it was just increased like that. As a peace loving person I met the State Security Adviser (SSA) on Monday, the issue was the same and they impounded our vehicles.

 

“We were with the SSA, Commissioner for Transport, the Department of Public Transportation (DOPT), and the Area Commander and sat down to sort out the issue because we don’t want to embarrass ourselves because this state is our state. They promised us yesterday that something was going to be done and it would go back to normal, but we discovered this was a falsehood.
“That is why we are here today to see the governor to tell us because we are over taxed. There is multiple taxation, multiple enforcement, so many government agencies are collecting money from taxes on daily basis.”

 

 

Credit : Today

Governor Ayade Bags UNESCO Award Of Excellence

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Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, has been conferred with the Award of Excellence by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for his leadership and foresight in improving the lives of the people of the state.

Presenting the award at the Governor’s office in Calabar the state capital, the Executive Director of the UNESCO Centre for Peace, Mr Guy Djoken, disclosed that the award is aimed at boosting his morale for more result-oriented initiatives.

Mr Djoken, who is also the President/CEO of US-UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations, said that through the show of commitment exhibited by the state, UNESCO through the support of the United States is willing to collaborate with the Cross River State Chambers of Commerce and Industry to create wealth and continuously improve on the living conditions of the residents of the state.

Some areas of collaboration he higlighted are the establishment of a virtual Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Center that will serve as a call center as well as support all other IT-related activities.

This will be set up with the view to building the entrepreneurship area of agriculture, renewable energy, education and healthcare delivery.

In his response, Governor Ayade said that he saw the award as a call for more work and charged UNESCO to complement the state’s tourism drive under the medical tourism brand.

The Governor gave the assurance that with the conducive business climate the state has, coupled with the hospitable deposition of the people, Calabar would definitely bring a huge return on investment if it sites a health facility in the state.

Credit: ChannelsTv