A businessman in Ajassor community of Etung local government area of Cross River State, Mark Prince, who was accused by a former official of the state Oscar Ofuka of seizing 32 hectares of cocoa plots belonging to the state government has denied the allegation.
In an interview in Calabar, Prince said the call on the state government to clampdown on him by Ofuka over the 32 hectares of cocoa at Abonita, Government Cocoa Estate, Etung local area was unwarranted.
Prince asserted that the contentious cocoa plots belonged to his late father, saying the matter had been settled in court and judgement given in his favour.
Ofuka served in Ayade’s administration as the special adviser on cocoa development and control.
He refuted the allegation by Ofuka that soldiers were used to chase away legitimate contractors from the contentious plots.
Mark Prince said, “The alarm raised by Ofuka that I used soldiers to intimidate and harassed cocoa contractors at Abonita estate owned by the Cross River State government is a lie.
“Ofuka whose tenure as special adviser to former governor Ben Ayade had elapsed, is doing everything humanly possible to usurp the cocoa plots owned by my late father.”
While claiming to be the authentic owner of the land, Mark Prince said, “I have documents showing a letter which my father wrote to Cross River State Ministry of Agriculture alerting them that he possessed that land, and the ministry approved the letter and withdrew their members of staff, after the ministry accepted to hand over the disputed land to my late father in 1976.
“Let me bring to your notice that all former cocoa allocation chairmen who had served in that capacity none had included that portion in any of the allocations, until when Ofuka came on board and began to make trouble to the extent that we dragged each other to the state House of Assembly.”
He said their appearance before a five-man committee in the 8th House of Assembly headed by Hon. Stephen Ukpukpen resulted to a “resolution that the property belonged to my late father and not the state government. Ofuka thereafter went to the immediate past governor Ben Ayade who decided to set up a five-man committee.
“The committee came up with a resolution that the portion of land in contention was my father’s property with warning that no allocation should be made henceforth on the land in question.
“The consent judgement paraded by Ofuka is fake and has no effect on this issue.”
