INC vows to resist remapping of A'Ibom State

Ijaw National Congress (INC) has said it would resist attempts to redraw the Akwa Ibom State map that is aimed at reducing Ijaw settlements across seven of 31 local governments.

INC, the pan Ijaw socio-cultural and pressure group dismissed claims advanced by promoters of the project as false baseless and mischievous.

INC said that claims that Akwa Ibom has no map and hence the need to draw a map by the state government was a ploy to realign settlements in the state to bring communities into Ijaw settlements who are oil-bearing communities.

Prof Benjamin Okaba, President of INC, who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said Ijaws across the Niger Delta region are being mobilised to halt plans to further marginalise Ijaws in Akwa Ibom State.

Okaba regretted that some interest groups who are not comfortable with the natural endowments of oil and gas in Ijaw settlements in Akwa Ibom State want to use government machinery to distort Ijaw settlements and create a boundary crisis.

Eket People Reject Akwa Ibom Map, Demand Remapping of the Coastal Oil State
Akanimo Sampson by Akanimo Sampson 1 year ago in News Reading Time: 2 mins read
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The Eket people of Akwa Ibom State with access to the Atlantic ocean say the subsisting map of their state is not acceptable to them. They are therefore pushing for a remapping of the big offshore oil and gas state.

Their umbrella organization, Ekid Peoples Union (EPU) is loudly demanding the remapping of Akwa Ibom since according to them, what is currently regarded as a map of the state is not acceptable to the people.

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EPU’s National President, Samuel Udonsak, a prominent medical doctor, made the demand in his address at the Ekid Annual National Congress 2021, which has a theme ‘Ekid: Reawakening and Repositioning for Prosperity’ which took place on Thursday, ar the Prince Udo Edukere Hall, Esit Eket Local Government Council Secretariat, Uquo.

According to Udonsak, “Akwa Ibom never had a map at its creation, so the union does not consider the present effort to deliver an acceptable Map as remapping. No Map of Akwa Ibom State has ever been produced or gazetted.

“The union is now in an epic struggle to have a Map of Akwa ibom State delineating the true boundary of Ekid Nation in line with our aboriginal rights, historical antecedents and legal judgments and pronouncements. No amount of blackmail or inventions of falsehood would make us abandoned this sacred obligation. It is a task that must be done.

“It is only Ekid people that can tell the true boundary of Ibeno LGA. For we gave them land, and when they needed where to bury their dead, we gave them an additional land, and when they needed to build the native court, it is the Ekid people that gave them more land.

‘’Even in recent memory, the former Deputy Governor, Sen (Engr) Chris Ekpeyong, still alive negotiated for us to cede our land for them to build their secretariat. It is incorrect to say that Ibeno was not created without a boundary. The seven (7) villages that made up Ibeno LGA at its creation had defined,” claimed EPU.

The union also claimed “that ExxonMobil’s Qua Iboe Terminal (QIT) is sited on Ekid land. This is incontrovertible. The courts have affirmed this. When the land for QIT extension was needed, it was acquired from Ekid people. There are discussions in the public space on the imminent transfer or sale or change of ownership. In the absence of a formal discussion with the community, it is imperative to inform any prospective beneficiary of such transfer, sale or change seamless and hitch-free transfer would include a timely engagement of the community.

Udonsak announced the establishment of Ekid Investment Company, institution of Ekid Education Trust Fund, establishment of a permanent Secretariat of Ekid Peope’s Union, Ufa Ekid, hosting of an Ekid Economic Summit, production of authentic history of Ekid people; and to identify and approve independent financing framework for the union.

*Old map as shown in Nigeria’s map as it is depicted in Nigeria’s map

According to Okaba, it is regrettable that while the INC is in the struggle to reverse the marginalisation of the Niger Delta region in the Nigerian context, the people of the region were busy marginalising their kinsmen.

The Ijaw leader who described the plot as ‘internal colonisation’ said that it was both illegal and unconstitutional for a state government to delve into mapping and boundary adjustments which are clearly on the exclusive legislative list.

He explained that mapping and boundary adjustments were clearly the role of the Federal Government and the responsibility of the Surveyor General of the Federation and the National Boundary Commission respectively.

“It is laughable that people are claiming that Akwa Ibom State created some 35 years ago has no map, when the major requirement for state creation is a map.

“How then did the constituencies delineation take place if there is no map, on what basis does Akwa Ibom get its revenue from the federation account?

“The state of Akwa Ibom also won cases bordering on oil wells with neighbouring states at the Supreme Court and the map of the state tendered as evidence formed the basis of the verdict and the maps are still in the records,” Okaba said.

According to him, the INC would take every necessary step to support and protect the economic interest of Ijaws in Akwa Ibom in their quest to benefit from the three per cent host community fund in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

“I want to place it on records that the government of Akwa Ibom will have the entire Ijaw nation to contend with on this, Ijaws may be a minority in Akwa Ibom but we are the majority in Niger Delta,” Okaba said. He urged the state government to comply with a subsisting court judgement in favour of the Ijaw communities and jettison the idea in the interest of peace.