B; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
Unyenge community in the Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State has called on the state government to discontinue the ongoing process to remap the state.
The State House of Assembly on the 13th of last month passed a bill tagged: Map Establishment Bill into law. The Bill if assented to law by the state governor Udom Emmanuel, will extend some landlocked local government areas being the littoral region of the state to the seashore.
The local government areas affected are, Esit Eket, Eket, Onna, Mkpat Enin, and Ikot Abasi through the Obolo lands in Mbo, Ibeno, and Eastern Obolo.
A statement made available to journalists in Uyo, yesterday, cautioned the State Government against an attempt to cede its ancestral land to another community.
Signed by the Unyenge Community Chairman, Chief Itama Ekpe; Secretary, Mr Kany Nkwobia, and the Public Relations Officer, Mr Bassey Ekpimah, in Unyenge in Mbo LGA available condemned the government’s action.
According to the statement, the community said the Akwa Ibom government by trying to cede Unyenge to a landlocked community, is silently calling for war between Unyenge and its neighbouring communities.
“There is a great cataclysm in Unyenge community, Mbo and the entire Obolo local government areas (LGAs) in Akwa Ibom State.
“Consequent upon the repugnant Map Establishment Bill being passed by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly on April 13, 2023, seeking to extend some landlocked LGAs in Esit Eket, Eket, Onna, Mkpat Enin, and Ikot Abasi through the Obolo lands in Mbo, Ibeno, and Eastern Obolo LGAs being the littoral region of the state to the seashore.
“The people of Obolo Nation of which Unyenge is an integral component, denounce unreservedly this iniquitous, unprincipled, and legislative manoeuvre of the Akwa Ibom State Government to arrogate the ancestral land of Obolo to any community or local government area whatsoever under the guise of remapping,” statement said.
The statement stated that right from the creation of Akwa Ibom State on September 23, 1987, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Boundary Commission had carved out and precisely delineated both the external territorial borders and the internal geographical boundaries among all the local government areas that constitute the state.
The statement added that the boundaries are conspicuously depicted on the map of the state on the state’s website (www.akwaibomstate.gov.ng) and printed on all official documents, gubbins, and other formal instruments of the state.
According to the statement, surprisingly, it is quite hilarious and irrational to hear the Akwa Ibom State Governor Mr Udom Emmanuel lay claim to the non-existence of an official gazetted map of the state.
The community in the statement added that the Akwa Ibom governor has gone as far as expropriating power to himself and thereby breaching the rules of law, even as he shows no consideration to a Court Order given by a court of competent jurisdiction.
It stated that the Unyenge community is strongly admonishing any public officers to refrain from engaging in any act of injustice, abuse of power to eschew fuelling antagonism, communal upheaval, social and economic instability.
The statement stated, “As much as we, the Obolo, are peace-loving people, we will not hesitate to invoke all legal tools and civil procedures to fight for the maintenance of our ancestral territory should the government proceed with this unreasonable and inconsiderate bill.”
