๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐น๐๐ ๐๐ธ๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ผ๐๐'๐ ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐บ ๐ข๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ธ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ
By Daniel Etim.
A former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Eket Chapter, and a prominent son of Ekid Nation, Barrister Akpadiaha Ebitu, has strongly faulted the position of the Akwa Ibom State Government that the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve, popularly known as Akoiyak Ekid, does not belong to the Ekid people.
Barrister Ebitu made this assertion during a live radio programme on EXCEL FM 106.9, aired under the BUSH HOUSE Channel 27 banner, where he described the state governmentโs stance as legally untenable and historically misleading.
According to him, it is an established legal fact that the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve belongs to the Ekid people, a position firmly settled by the 1918 Privy Council judgment, which he noted remains valid and binding till today.
He stressed that the agitation by the Ekid people over encroachment on their ancestral land predates the current administration and had been ongoing long before Pastor Umo Eno assumed office as Governor of Akwa Ibom State.
Barrister Ebitu further cited concrete historical evidence to buttress Ekid ownership of the land. He recalled that in 1998, when Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited sought to acquire portions of the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve for the expansion of its operational facilities, the oil company, through the Akwa Ibom State Government, paid compensation to the Ekid people as the recognized landowners.
He wondered how the present state government could now feign ignorance of facts that are well documented and still available in official records across relevant government ministries.
โThere are issues a governor does not use public events to address,โ Barrister Ebitu said, expressing deep disappointment over what he described as Governor Umo Enoโs recent descent into personal attacks during the commissioning of a medical facility in Eket.
He specifically condemned the governorโs public criticism of Dr. Samuel Udonsak, President-General of the Ekid Peopleโs Union, describing it as unnecessary, unbecoming and demeaning.
Barrister Ebitu highlighted Dr. Udonsakโs sterling academic and professional pedigree, noting that he graduated with Grade One from Etinan Institute in 1976, earned a degree in Medicine from the University of Ibadan and post graduate studies at University of Leeds, UK. He stressed that throughout his educational career, he wrote no examination twice.
โIt was completely wrong and out of sync, for the governor to have castigated Dr. Udonsak in a public gathering simply because he signed a caveat emptor on behalf of the Ekid Nation,โ he fumed.
"Dr Udonsak has never worked for government, for him to have gathered his hard earned money to contest election in order to serve Akwa Ibom people is not something somebody should mock him about, it was low scale, distasteful and appalling", Ebitu said bitterly.
Going down memory lane, Barrister Ebitu recalled the 1993 crisis between the Ibeno and Ekid people, which prompted the Federal Military Government to constitute a Panel of Inquiry, chaired by the late retired Supreme Court Justice Ephraim E.I.O Akpata.
He stated that the panel after a forensic analysis of the 1918 judgement, unequivocally reaffirmed that the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve is the bonafide ancestral land of the Ekid people in perpetuity.
He also dismissed as false and misleading the narrative being promoted by the state government that the Ekid people are opposed to the LagosโCalabar Coastal Highway passing through the Stubbs Creek axis.
โThe Ekid people are not against development in any form,โ he clarified. โWhat they are resisting is illegality and injustice.โ
Barrister Ebitu lamented what he described as the indiscriminate sale of large portions of Ekid ancestral land to private investors without due consultation, recognition, or compensation to the rightful landowners, the Ekid people.
He concluded by urging the Akwa Ibom State Government to embrace justice, due process, and historical truth in handling issues concerning the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve, warning that development anchored on injustice cannot yield sustainable peace.