By Akaninyene OKON
Concerned Akwa Ibom State traders have warned Governor Udom Emmanuel to beware of his Commissioner for Lands and Town Planning, Arc. Ime Ekpo, Ibom Telegraph can authoritatively report.
According to Ibom Telegraph, the warning came on the heels of the alarm raised by the traders at the weekend over what it called, “the spate of destruction by Commissioner for Lands and Town Planning, Arc. Ime Ekpo, in the guise of working on the Governor’s directive and the master plan of Ibom Industrial Layout.”
Ibom Telegraph investigation revealed that the traders raised the concern, following a tip on the ploy of Arc. Ekpo to take over the construction of the Itam Fruit and Vegetable Market thereby frustration its aims and objectives.
Speaking with Ibom Telegraph, they said they were disturbed to know that the same “Arc. Ime Ekpo, whom his days with Julius Berger as a site engineer, channeled all the waste water from the underground pipeline drainage to the same land earmarked for the construction of the Itam International Fruit and Vegetable Market. He fraudulently absconded with the billions of Naira he made from the dubious project. The same Ime Ekpo is now back to distort the ongoing construction work at the Market, a project we have worked tirelessly to see it completed in the shortest possible time. This is a market that Governor Udom Emmanuel has openly declared to support and finance its construction with complete drainage system.”
According to the traders, Arc. Ekpo’s devilish act will dispossess more than 30,000 traders of their stalls and capitals injected into the construction, adding that “bulk of the money we have injected into the project came from the interest-free loan granted us by the State Governor, Deacon Udom Emmanuel.”
“We have heard rumours that part of the reasons Mr. Ime Ekpo is using to knock the work off is the fact that the site was strictly meant for industrial layout. And we want to ask, do we not have Timber and building material market there? Do we not have abattoir and livestock market there? Do we not have where the Hausa are selling all sort of vegetable and food items there? Will Ime Ekpo deny the fact that within the two months of the construction work that many people have been empowered? He now wants to end their livelihood due to his insatiable greed,” they lamented.
“There is tension and threats of breakdown of law and order in the area, consequent upon Mr. Ime Ekpo’s audacity to halt the almost-completed project. We will go to any extend to get him and his cohorts to pay for this, if he succeeds in his ploy,” they warned.
The traders further said “We cannot build our Akwa Ibom on the path of industrialization and self-sufficiency if we continue to allow the likes of Ime Ekpo to occupy positions of responsibility.”
They, therefore, urged the authorities and Governor Udom Emmanuel to resist any intent of dispossessing trader who will be bulk of the voters in the 2019 elections of their livelihood.
Ibom Telegraph made effort to speak with the Special Assistant to the Governor on Trade and Market Matters, Akparawa Idorenyin Raphael, but to no avail as he was permanently out of his office and he did not also take calls.
Though all efforts to speak with Arc Ime Ekpo proved abortive, Mr. Uwemedimo Edet, a civil servant with the Ministry of Lands and Town Planning, who spoke with Ibom Telegraph, denied the Commissioner’s involvement on personal ground, adding that “It may have been on professional conformity with our work, but I am not sure.”
