Ijaw group rejects remapping of Akwa Ibom, says it’s ‘ploy to regroup oil communities’

The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has kicked against efforts to redraw the map of Akwa Ibom state. 

According to NAN, the group said the aim of the remapping was to realign communities into oil-producing Ijaw communities.

The state government has been speaking on the plan to redraw the map of the state.

The house of assembly recently passed the Akwa Ibom state map establishment law 2023 which was commended by traditional rulers and others who hailed Udom Emmanuel, the state governor for the vision.

They said the law would make for easy identification of boundaries and reduce communal conflicts.

However, Benjamin Okaba, president of INC, who described the move as an “internal colonisation” said the Ijaw would resist the remapping efforts.

He said the claims that Akwa Ibom has no map, hence, the need to draw a new one was untrue and only a plot to add settlements into oil-producing communities.

He said Ijaws across the Niger Delta region were being mobilised to halt plans to further marginalise them in Akwa Ibom.

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

“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.

“I want to place it on record that the government of Akwa Ibom will have the entire Ijaw nation to contend with on this. Ijaws may be minority in Akwa Ibom but we are majority in Niger Delta.”

He asked the state government to comply with a subsisting court judgment in favour of Ijaw communities and jettison the idea in the interest of peace.