Youths in Effiat community in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have called on Governor Udom Emmanuel to urgently intervene in the looming crisis in the area to avoid a breakdown of law and order.
The appeal to the governor followed an alleged refusal of the Okon Bassey Okon-led Oil and Gas Relations Committee to relinquish office after it was dissolved last year.
The youths said the Okon-led committee was dissolved in November 13, 2017, after a vote of no confidence was passed on it and another committee headed by Mr. Saviour Bassey Itabana was reconstituted to replace it.
But they alleged that since then, Okon had continued to parade himself as the chairman of the committee and had allegedly been defrauding oil companies, despite the vote of no confidence passed on him.
Expressing fears that the continued stay in office of the defunct Okon administration might lead to a crisis in the community, they appealed to Governor Emmanuel to urgently intervene in the logjam before the situation would get out of hand.
In a petition addressed to the Commissioner for Transport and Petroleum Resources, Mr. Oman Esin, by the Effiat Ikpoto Oil and Gas Relations Committee, dated April 5, 2018, the youths accused Okon of mismanaging N3million donated by Exprotech Nigeria limited, an oil servicing company operating in the area.
According to the petition signed by Mr. Saviour Bassey Itabana, and the 16 members of the committee, the youths alleged that the money was donated to the community for the purchase of a vehicle for the Effiat clan head, His Royal Highness, Obuong Asukwo Okon Ekpo IV.
They further claimed that the same disbanded Okon-led exco had allegedly been collecting N8.8million monthly from Associated Oil and Gas Services Limited in the name of security services.
When contacted, the Chairman of the newly reconstituted Effiat Ikpoto Oil and Gas Committee, Mr. Saviour Bassey Itabana, said that the community had been ravaged by its previous leaders.
“It is unfortunate that Effiat Clan that plays host to multinational companies like Oriental Energy Resources limited, Addax Petroleum Development Company Limited, Moni-Pulo Nigeria limited, Total Exploration and Producing Nigeria Limited, Mobil Producing Unlimited, Associated Oil and Gas Services Limited and Universal Energy Limited, should stay without even a primary school,” he said.
Also speaking separately in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, two community leaders, Samuel Bassey Asuquo and Uduak Edet Udo, said the discovery of crude oil in their communities had brought pains and sorrow, instead of blessings to the people.
According to them, “In Effiat Clan, there is no functional primary school in the area. No health facility, no good drinking water and other form of development in the area because of the fraudulent activities of the previous committee leaders.”
But in swift reaction, the chairman of the disbanded committee, Okon Bassey Okon, denied all the allegations saying, “Nobody has the power except the Clan Head, His Royal Highness, Obuong Asukwo Okon Ekpo IV, who has the power to dissolve or pass a vote of no confidence on the Committee”.
He, however, declared the acclaimed leadership of the committee by Itabana as illegal.
