Akwa Ibom govt: Why we demolished structures at Nung Oku

AKSG says structures d were on gov’t land

…Denies demolishing the structures on Christmas day

The Akwa Ibom state government says the structures demolished by the ministry of lands and water resources in Nung Oku Ibesikpo, between Friday and Wednesday were erected on government land.

Ime Ekpo, commissioner for lands and water resources, made the clarification at a media chat in Uyo, the state capital.

He said this became necessary following what he called “negative propaganda” on social media.

Ekpo said the state government acquired the land and paid compensation fully to the original owners and the host community since 2005.

“This parcel of a land was acquired by government about 2005. Compensations were paid to the land owners. There is no ambiguity at all on whether compensation was paid or not,” he said.

“So in May 2017, a concerned citizen from that community wrote a letter to the Ministry informing us that: one, the parcel of land in their village Nung Oku that government acquired, surveyed and paid compensation have been encroached. In that same letter, he mentioned that there is one young boy in the village by name, Leo Bassey, who has been deceiving unsuspecting members of the public into selling out government land.”

“When I got that letter, I invited the village council and the village head, they came to the office and I specifically mentioned in my letter of invitation to them that Leo Bassey must come with them. The village council said they never had a hand in the sales of government land, that government had acquired the land and paid them compensation adequately.”

Ekpo said in 2017, Udom Emmanuel, the governor, directed the ministry of lands to allocate the said parcel of land to generals of the Armed Forces who are from Akwa Ibom.

“In September of 2017, the governor made a pronouncement to Generals of Akwa Ibom state origin, that he will give them land to build a house so that everyone will have a land in Akwa Ibom state. He then instructed me to get the land allocated,” he said.

“We did the allocations. So, when we prepared the layout and gave it to the the Surveyor. The office of the Surveyor General has been going there since 2018, but this same Leo Bassey will organise members of the community mainly youths to go and chase away government officials. In one of such occasions, survey equipment belonging to government were seized and the youths even threatened to kill them.”