The Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party made up of persons who are notorious for telling lies.

Ayade was on Wednesday reacting to assertions credited to the APC Chairman in the state, John Ochala who reportedly described his return to school to pursue a Master’s degree in Law at the University of Calabar as laughable and pathetic.

Ochala had on Tuesday described Ayade as indolent and idle man who had time to return to school when he should have done that while he was a senator or  a private person.

Ochala  accused Ayade as being bereft of ideas on how to govern the state, which he said had been plagued with many problems including infrastructure decay since Ayade took over power.

Ayade, in a statement by his Chief Media Adviser, Mr. Christain Ita said it was funny that a party like APC which prides itself as a major opposition cannot engage the Governor on governance issues but chooses to lie to score cheap political points.

“If they didn’t see anything wrong with Gov. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai returning to school in 2017 in far away Netherlands for his PhD, what then is wrong if Gov. Ayade returns to school to add to his numerous degrees within Calabar, the state capital?” the statement queried. 

Ayade also reminded the APC that the Chief Whip of the Senate and member of the APC, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu was an undergraduate student while serving as Abia State Governor.

“The timing of Gov. Ayade’s decision to return to school is unequivocally perfect. Unlike APC members, the Governor, despite all the resources at his disposal didn’t choose any foreign university.

“He decided to do it locally thereby boosting the reputation of Nigerian universities at a time tertiary institutions in West Africa are under attack.

“For APC to lie to Cross Riverians that no serving Governor in the history of Nigeria has ever returned to school is unfortunate. Maybe, they just don’t have the guts to commend the Governor for patronizing a Nigerian university.

“Ignorantly, Ochala also lied that Gov. Ayade didn’t go to school while in the Senate. This is very shocking. Gov. Ayade was elected Senator in 2011 and later that year enrolled in Nigeria Law School, Abuja and was called to bar in 2012,” the statement added.