APC youth says Orok Duke’s replacement on NDDC board as commissioner representing Cross River has restored peace
The replacement of former Cross River State Commissioner for Information Mr. Asu Okang with Rt. Hon. Orok Duke as the Commissioner representing the state in the Niger Delta Development Commissioner by President Bola Tinubu has been described as the needful action following pressure from Governor Bassey Otu and stakeholders of the APC for reversal of the initial appointment.
The comment came Sunday from Ibom Bassey Okokon, the APC Youth and Community Leader in Ikot Offiong, Mbiabo Esine Ufot while fielding questions from newsmen in Calabar.
The speed in which the governor handled the matter which led to the closure and settlement of the passionate issue demonstrates that President Tinubu is a listening president who is prepared to respond to the yearning and aspirations of Nigerians.
Okokon used the opportunity to congratulate Rt. Hon. Orok Duke on his re-appointment into the NDDC board after the earlier dissolution by former President Muhammadu Buhari and charged him to regard his new assignment as a chance to attract tangible development projects to the state especially oil-bearing communities.
It would be recalled that Etubom Nya Asuquo, former member of the House of Representatives and Nigeria former Ambassador to Uganda had revealed that over 30 oil wells were identified and capped about 65 years ago by shell BP Petroleum Development Company Ltd in Mbiabo Ikot Offiong Community of Cross River State.
Investigation revealed that the oil wells sited in various locations in Ikot Offiong were identified recently by the Ikot Offiong Youths mobilized by the community to locate all the capped oil locations by Shell in the fifties.
Against this development, the Youth leader of Mbiabo Ikot Offiong, Asuquo Asuquo Joseph who led the youths in the excercise thanked God for the gift of nature in an exclusive interview with newsmen and appealed to the federal government to come-in and ensure enduring peace in Ikot Offiong in Cross River State and Oku Iboku in Akwa Ibom State so that there will be peace and harmony in the land to foster enabling environment for the development of the oil wells for the benefit of Ikot Offiong people who have been internally displaced from their ancestral homeland since. 2000.
In his contribution, the Clan Head of Mbiabo Ikot Offiong, Etubom Ambassador Nya Asuquo said Shell did some 2-d Seismic exploration and found out that the oil well there contained a lot of gas, but less oil and decided to cap them in the fifties because the focus then was on oil but today gas is needed all over the world for domestic and industrial use.
Okokon appealed to Governor Bassey Otu to leverage on the same speed used in overturning the NDDC appointment to implore the Niger Delta Development Commissioner (NDDC), Federal Ministries of Petroleum Resources (Oil and Gas) and all other relevant government agencies to liaise with Etubom Asuquo, the immediate past Nigeria Ambassador to Uganda to ensure that Cross River State becomes an oil producing state again since the oil wells in Bakassi LGA were ceded to Akwa Ibom.
Two oil fields have been identified in Cross River State which Etubom Nya Asuquo registered in what is now called NUPRC (A Federal Government entity that registers and gives license exploration).
The two oil fields registered in the Nigeria Oil Concession Map in 2018 are OPL 2020, which is territory and OPL 2021 which spans from Adiabo towards Akpabuyo Local Government Area and is said to be the genesis of the feud between Ikot Offiong in Cross River and Oku Iboku in Akwa Ibom States.
By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)
