A Response to the false claim that Ex Gov. Udom Emmanuel made a map to extend Esit Eket, Eket, ONNA, Mkpat Enin and Ikot Abasi LGAs to the ocean in 2023_
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By Manfred Ekpe, Esq. LLB Hons)
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Histories are not told half way as the Ibeno people do. They fraudulently place the history of Ibibio LGAs extending to the Atlantic Ocean in 2023 when Ex Gov Udom Emmanuel signed signed into law the Map of Akwa Ibom State. Ibeno, who are recent refugee settlers in Ibibioland want to twist history to present the narrative that the reason behind the State Map is because of the Petroleum Industry Act signed into law by fmr President Buhari in 2021.
THE TRUTH:
1. The fraudulent annexation by Ibeno of the Ibibio coastal villages of what is now Esit Eket, Eket, Onna, Mkpat Enin and Ikot Abasi LGAs started in 1978 when an Ibeno man, Barr. Akpanika Mkpat Ukot was the Attorney General of the then Cross River State under the non-indigenous Military Governor Lt. Col Paul Omu who did not know the history of landownership. Barr. Ukot in that law— CRS Traditional Rulers Law 1978, annexed 12 Eket coastal villages and about 6 onna villages into Ibeno.
2. Eket, Onna and other Ibibio poeple protested. This protests led to war between Eket and Ibeno in 1982. Govt set up a panel of Inquiry to look into the matter. The panel report recommeneded the repeal of the 1978 fraudulent law and return of Ibibio coastal villages to the rightful owners. Hence in 1983, CRS Law No. 9 was enacted returning those villages to Ibibio people of then Eket and Ikot Abasi LGAs. It must be recalled that it was just in 1991 that ONNA and Esit Eket were created out of Eket while Mkpat Enin was created out of Ikot Abasi same year.
3. Akwa Ibom State was created out of Cross River State in 1987 and Barr. Ukot was transferred to the akwa Ibom State civil service as senior staff in the ministry of justice. He again drafted the Akwa Ibom State Traditional Rulers Edict 1990 which again fraudulently annexed Ibibio oil rich coastal villages to Ibeno.
4. Because of that fraud, war broke out between Eket/ONNA against Ibeno in 1992/93.
5. Ibeno was nearly annihilated. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida the then military president set up a panel of Inquiry to look into the matter. This panel of inquiry is often called Justice Ephraim Akpata Commission of Inquiry.
6. The Akpata Commission of Inquiry in its report declared that Ibeno started the war because they wanted to claim Ibibio oil rich coastal lands. The report also recommended that the Akwa Ibom State Govt should repeal the fraudulent traditional rulers edict of 1990 and return Ibibio coastal villages to Ibibio people. Trust the Nigerian govt, nothing was done.
7. It was in 2021 that the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly enforced the Akpata Report by repealing the 1990 Edict. It then became necessary to enact a map for the state to reflect true landownership. This was done after full consultations throughout the state in a public hearing where Ibeno delivered a position paper in March 2023.
8. Ladies and Gentlemen, how then can the history of the Akwa Ibom coastal landownership be said to have started in 2023 when Gov. Udom Emmanuel signed the map into law?
CONCLUSION:
For over 100 years the Europeans who were neutral had recorded that they witnessed when Ibeno came to Ibibioland as refugees from Andoni and that coastal Ibibio people gave them land to settle for which they paid rent. How then can tenants claim to be landlords today?
