Question:
There used to be this famed closed power group consisting of Senator Imoke, Donald Duke, Victor Ndoma-Egba and Gershom Bassey. What happened to it?
Liyel Imoke:
Perception! Perception of a closed power group in Cross-River.
Question:
Was there actually an agreement that Duke, Imoke and Gershom Bassey would govern the state in turns?
Liyel Imoke:
No! I never even wanted to be governor. That is how far this whole thing was. When we started, I would be honest with you. We started in Lagos, I invited all the young people in Lagos to look at Cross River and that was where I reacquainted with Donald. He came to those meetings just as Gershom came to those meetings. The difference probably was that I knew Gershom in England long before I met Donald. We started this in 1996 but it wasn’t a three man affair. Three of us didn’t sit down and plan it. I planned it and invited everybody. Our relationships with all these people have remained strong. My own idea was that I wanted to confront the traditional establishment in Cross-River. The traditional establishment in those days used to say that nobody from Efik could become governor, the traditional establishment used to say things like only those from a particular group could become governor and they had some powerful big men.
Culled from an interview (published in November 2014) from Vanguard Newspapers
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