The Ulok Ulok Progressives Assembly (UUPA), a socio-cultural association of Ibeno ethnic nationality in Akwa Ibom State, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Eket People’s Union and Esit Eket local government area to perpetrate violence in the state to sabotage the federal government effort to increase crude oil production in their domain.
It was learnt that the fresh threats are fuelled by the ongoing struggle for ownership of Stubb Creek Forest in Ibeno LGA, which BUA Group acquired for a refinery project and Landmark Beach Resort in the area.
Rising from an emergency consultative meeting in Ukpenkang, headquarters of Ibeno LGA, host to the defunct Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) at the weekend, leaders of the association explained that the duo’s purported quit notice issued to Ibeno people to vacate their present territory has the potential to disrupt the peace being enjoyed in the state by both citizens and investors.
They averred that the so-called “Quit Notice” is not targeted at Ibeno because Ibeno is an LGA created by law, but they are targeting the existing and intending investors trooping into Ibeno by virtue of God’s abundant oil/gas and other natural resources found there.
The group noted that the latest threat to resume hostility against Ibeno, a major oil-producing LGA in the state, was a follow-up to the December 2024 bloody attack, which claimed dozens of lives and properties, with many victims hospitalised.
They recalled that “Eket and Esit Eket are notorious for scaring away investors within their domain by creating insecurity,” citing clear examples such as the defunct Mobil Pegasus Club, Dr Pepper Bottling Company, Qua Steel Company, and Qua River Hotel, which folded up due to insecurity in Eket as a whole and most recently frustrated the state government effort in revitalising Akwa Palm Industries in Esit Eket.
According to them, “To date, all efforts by both the state and federal governments to site industry within Eket and Esit Eket LGAs have met a brick wall due to hostility allegedly created by few individuals, which led to stifling of development, and now we are trying to extend the same to neighbouring Ibeno.
“The leadership of Ekid People’s Union (EPU) led by Dr Samuel Udonsak, as President, had issued a quit notice, warning the people of Ibeno to vacate their (Ibeno) ancestral land, querying why a sovereign LGA, created and gazetted by the federal government should be ordered to leave their present location by a sister LGA?”
The body also accused the former minister of Lands, Chief Nduese Essien, the paramount rulers of Eket and Esit Eket LGAs, and stakeholders from the two LGAs of working in alliance to stoke violence against Ibeno because of its oil and gas resources.
The UUPA, however, appealed to the state and federal governments to intervene to forestall a further breakdown of law and order in the area, stating that the siting of a BUA refinery and other oil/gas industries in Ibeno would benefit not only the Ibeno people alone but also the entire state and the country in general.
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