A’Ibom ALGON chairman, stakeholders berates successive administrations for problem between Ibeno and Eket council areas

The Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) in Akwa Ibom State and Chairman of Esit Eket council area, Mr. Iniobong Robson has alleged that the non-challant attitude of successive administrations towards the misunderstanding on the ownership of Stubbs Creek Forest was a conspiracy of silence resulting in the many problems confronting the host communities of Eket/EsitEket/Ibeno and ONNA local government areas.

He made this disclosure during a press conference organized by Ekid Peoples Union, a sociocultural group in Ekid nation yesterday, at Eket Civic Center in Eket.

Robson explained that judgments from the supreme court of Nigeria, the final arbiter of the case, and the Privy Council, affirm that the people of Ekid nation are the owners of the land.

According to him, the state government’s body language of consistent silence in the face of threatening conflict in the host communities where Mr. William Mkpa, Chairman of Ibeno Local government incites violence, speaks obviously of a government concealed shared interest with the people of Ibeno local government.

Recall that Mr. Mkpa, Chairman of Ibeno local government has on several occasions made claims that the Ibeno local government area owns the Stubbs Creek and the land housing ExxonMobil facility (QIT), and is exclusively entitled to all the severances accruable to a host community as enshrined in the PIA to the exclusion of Eket, Esit Eket, and ONNA LGAs.

“Our problem is not Ibeno, nor William Mkpa. You know why? It is not within the powers of a local government Chairman to create or determine the map of a state”

“If it were so, I am a Chairman of a Local Government, I would have done it long ago. It is not within the powers of a local government Chairman to establish a village or delist it where it is erroneously recognized under a Local govt it doesn’t belong to, like in the case of all the villages in the Stubbs Creek, wrongly given to Ibeno local govt.

“It is most disheartening that the current purported illegal map of the state, seen in all government establishment places Ineh Akpautong, a village in Esit Eket local Government, where the current paramount ruler of esit Eket comes from in Ibeno local government, does it mean that HRH Ubong Peter Assam is from Ibeno local government?”

“Despite the fact that A’Ibom high court in 2004 had made an order, that the map of Esit Eket is drawn to locate Ine- Akpautong of Esit Eket and the map of A’Ibom state be drawn to locate the said village in Esit Eket territory, uptil today, every succeeding governments has blatantly refused to execute the court order, tell me why the government is not our problem” – he said.

Earlier, the President General of Eket Peoples Union (EPU) Dr. Samuel Udonsak, affirmed that the entire stretch of land known as and called AKOIYAK or STUBBS CREEK FOREST, is an ancestral land of the Ekid people comprising Eket and Esit Eket local government of Akwa Ibom State.

He noted that several court judgments of 1916 and 1918 have stated expressly that Ibeno does not own any land since they were settlers, and settlers do not carry around lands while sojourning.

Udonsak maintained that the 1993 judicial commission of enquiry, set up by the C-IN-C of the country, to look into the dispute between Ibeno and Ekid communities headed by Hon. Justice Ephraim Akpata further confirmed in strong terms the Ekid people’s ownership of Stubbs Creek Forest.

The Ekid Peoples Union warns that going forward, anyone, be it government, Ibeno people or BUA, who enters the STUBBS CREEK to commence operations without the express permission of the original owners will meet a stiff legal battle.

Also speaking, a former minister and two-term house of a representative member, Chief Nduese Essien, corroborated with the position of the Esit Eket council helmsman and the union, promising that Ekid people will never allow their right of ownership of the Stubbs Creek forest to be trampled upon.