Category: Niger Delta

Chairperson of Women Development Programme in Owan West local government area, Mrs. Patience Azegbe Ilaboya, has called on relevant government authorities to invest more in providing quality health care for rural women.

Mrs. Ilaboya said it was wrong for rural women to continue patronage of traditional birth attendant.

She spoke when she visited the first baby born in the locality in 2019 at the Uhonmora-Ora Primary Healthcare Centre, Uhonmora-Ora.

Mrs. Ilaboya, who prayed God to protect the baby promised to cater for the baby until the end of her husband’s tenure as council boss.

“This is the first baby in my tenure as WDP Chairperson. I am deeply glad about this, and between now and the end of my tenure, I will be providing whatever the baby needs,” the Chairperson assured.

The Chairperson presented gift items to the baby and paid all outstanding maternity bills.

Mother of the baby, Mrs Abigail Ogbeta, a tailor, thanked the Owan West Chairperson for putting smiles in the faces of the needy and the less privileged through her office as WDP Chairperson.

For Master Divine Etetim Willie, an SS1 student of West African Peoples Institute, (WAPI), Calabar, Cross River State, though in his teens, his future like many others had been rather bleak.

Curiously, it was due to no other reason than the fact that the wherewithal to actualize his dream of using the platform of education to fulfill his dream of a great future was lacking.

In fact, that he was able to get to his present class was a miracle because his path from the beginning had been filled with thorns due to his poor background.

Though brilliant, the thought of being sent away from school daily agitated his mind because he was not sure where the resources would come from.

Coming from a state that has many young children hawking on the streets of Lagos or Abuja or serving as house help, his prayer must have been that he should not end up in this group.

As if God was listening to his prayers, hope eventually came his way as the news of a scholarship scheme for indigent students filtered into the school last year.

Many of the students especially the indigent ones never believed what they heard as what they were told was unprecedented in the history of WAPI, which was founded in 1938.

However, whatever doubts they had faded when the school principal, Mrs. Mercy Etim confirmed the authenticity of the news to the students and teachers.

She told them that the scholarship which is courtesy the school’s 1997 set would be awarded to twelve students in junior and secondary classes and would also cover payment of WAEC and NECO fees.

This was unlike past scholarship schemes enjoyed in the school which only saw beneficiaries through their secondary education.

Etim, however, added a caveat – the would-be beneficiaries though indigent must possess sound moral and academic records.

The news was like sweet music to the ears of Divine, who though was qualified on the two fronts, still prayed to make the list.

Eventually, the school set the ball rolling to pick the twelve deserving students and a list of awardees was made public late last year.

Those who were lucky in the JSS category included, Idongesit Francis Eton, Elisha Samuel Offiong, Cletus Ekwere Edem, and Favour Thompson Okon.

Awardees in the senior secondary category were Otu Archibvong Nyong, Divine Ikechukwu Amadi, Sunday Joseph John Ekpenyong and Andem Etim Effiong.

As the gates of the school were flung open for the formal presentation of the scholarships on December 29, 2018 anxiety was boldly written on the faces of the beneficiaries and their parents.

However, all that faded much later as beneficiaries were called one after the other to receive their scholarships.

So impressed was the chairman of the occasion, Barrister Ansa E. Ansa, an old student of WAPI who showered praises on the 1997 set of the school for their benevolence.

He particularly singled out Mr. Emmanuel Umohinyang, one of them for rescuing the school from a state of hopelessness through several intervention initiatives.

Ansa, a 1978 set of the school did not mince words when he described the 1997 set as the most viable set WAPI has produced since it was founded in 1938.

According to him, the turnaround that the school underwent to bring to its current state was the handiwork of the 1997 set.

He said: “Having seen what the 1997 set of this school has done, I make bold to say that you are the most viable set.

“Many of what has been achieved can be attributed to the support of Mr. Umohinyang.

“I have heard so much about him and I am happy to see him.  Nobody has organized their set like Mr. Umohinyang has done.”

As the chairman of the occasion was speaking, a former Physics Teacher in the school, Mr. Awosiminiala Fila smiled and nodded endlessly.

When he eventually rose to speak, he thanked God for what his old students have become and the fact that they remembered the school that made them.

He said: “I’m so glad in my lifetime that the labour of the past will not be in vain.

“When we were growing the seeds, we never knew that the seeds would grow into trees.

“I pray for Barrister Umohinyang that God will take him to where he should be.”

Others in audience could not but speak highly about the contributions of the 1997 set towards the development of the school.

The set is linked to the provision of furniture for staff and students and the new borehole.

This is aside other multi-million naira projects, including perimeter fencing, repair of the school generator, refurbishing of the administrative blocks, school hall and more.

So happy was the school principal, Mrs. Mercy Etim that she heaped endless praises on the ’97 set for their support, even as she singled out Umohinyang.

In his speech, Mr. Umohinyang whose foundation partnered with the 1997 set for the scholarship award said the initiative is just one of the avenues through which they are giving back to WAPI.

He said: “Whatever we are doing today is our way of giving back to our roots.  “I almost could not write my WAEC despite three extensions of date during our final year, but for our principal, Mrs. Mbang who rallied support for me, after discovering that I had not paid for my exams because I had no parents to do.

“I want to assure you all that we shall continue to do our best for WAPI in the years ahead as our own way of giving back to the school and humanity.”

One of the scholarship awardees, Divine Willie was full of praises for the Nkanu Nkanu-led 1997 set for coming to his aid, saying “I want to assure you on behalf of other awardees that we shall not disappoint you all.”

Youths in Bayelsa like in most states in the country are faced with the challenges of survival. Most of them are jobless. Even those who went through schools and acquired basic certificates are still roaming the streets seeking opportunities to make ends meet.

Therefore, people blame increase in criminal activities, rise in cult-related violence and armed robberies on the idleness of the youths. But things are looking up for the youths in Bayelsa following some steps initiated recently by the state government to tackle some of the challenges.

Apart from lifting an embargo on employment, which led to the engagement of 1000 youths in the state civil service, the decision of Governor Seriake Dickson to appoint Udengs Eradiri as the Commissioner for Youths was seen by many people as a quantum leap in the right direction.

Eradiri, an engineer, is an activist and has been a youth leader for a long time. He is an ardent believer in Ijaw cause, a mobiliser, a successful entrepreneur and a repository of ideas. As the immediate past President of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Eradiri was rated the most vibrant, vocal and intelligent person to have led the IYC.

So, many stakeholders poured encomiums on Dickson for his choice of a youth commissioner. While swearing-in Eradiri, the governor highlighted his concerns about the youths in the state. He gave Eradiri a marching order to reposition and refocus the youths in meaningful ventures.

Specifically, Dickson called for concerted action against the upsurge of criminality and social vices such as cultism, violence and drug abuse in the Niger Delta region.

He expressed concern over the future of the youths and stressed the need for leaders in the Niger Delta to fight cultism, drug abuse and other vices capable of truncating the destinies of the youths.

He particularly called on Eradiri to develop a template for sensitisation and reorientation of youths in the state for positive ventures.

He said: “Cultism is not only in the universities now. It is shocking that 11 to 12 years old are now deadly cultists. We have to recover as many as these young people as we can. I enjoin all political leaders, religious leaders to join in this. Woe betide the leaders who are deceiving these youths that cultism is the way to success for them.

“A good number of the youths have been deceived into thinking that they have to kill to succeed. I therefore call on Niger Delta leaders to rise to the challenge of cultism, drug abuse for us to safeguard the future of our youths who have abundant potential”.

Buoyed by the mandate, Eradiri murdered sleep. He has been strategising for better deals for Bayelsa youths. Few days into his appointment, Eradiri got accolades for mobilising youths for comedy and musical concerts he co-organised with his colleague in the Tourism ministry.

For the first time, youths were given opportunities and platforms to showcase their talents. Such opportunities gave them a sense of belonging, brought them closer to the government and compelled them to further develop their potential.

During the Yuletide, the new youth commissioner visited Argentina where he held crucial discussions on training and empowerment of Bayelsa youths with the Nigerian Ambassador, Jonah Odo Mkpuruka. Eradiri was said to have urged Mkpuruka to galvanize opportunities in Argentina for Bayelsa youths. The ambassador is to broker training programmes and empowerment opportunities and facilitate the coming of identified experts to Bayelsa State.

Apart from holding strategic meetings with all the appointees of the governor on youth matters, Eradiri has concluded plans to begin town hall meetings in every community in the state. The meetings, according to the youth commissioner, would help to identify peculiar challenges of the youths and develop policies and programmes to tackle them.

In the area of job creation, Eradiri said he would work with other commissioners to cut out deals concerning youths in their ministries. He said with required partnerships, jobs would be created for the youths in oil and gas, tourism and agriculture.

While addressing scores of youths under the auspices of the United Okoroma Youth Association (UOYA), Eradiri assured them of Dickson’s commitment to empower the youths. But he appealed to them to shun criminality and patiently wait for the government to roll out its programmes.

He asked them to be good ambassadors of their clans. Eradiri further urged the youths, who were preparing for their clan’s elections, to choose leaders with credibility and avoid actions that could attract interests of multinationals in their local elections.

Eradiri said that part of the mandate of his Ministry was to ensure that youth organisations were community based. He said such organisations should carry al, opinions in their communities along to ensure security, unity and development.

Ogoniland, Rivers State, has never been the same since its soils were left redundant by oil spills. In the last few years, governments have been talking about restoring the soils so that crops can grow on it. How far has it been able to achieve this? So much needs to be done, says Dr. Kabari Sam, a university lecturer and environmentalist. WALE AJETUNMOBI writes

Dr Kabari Sam, Head, Environment and Conservation Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), holds B.Ed Biology from the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. He also holds an MSc in Environmental Risk Management, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom and a Ph.D in Environmental Science from the Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. For some time now, Ogoniland, which occupies a chunk of Rivers State, has been his major professional concern. He has particularly been looking into the UNEP Report on this ancient domain. He has looked at the state of the Ogoni clean-up, the challenges of the clean-up and come up with recommendations with the potential to help properly clean-up Ogoniland.

In a presentation made available to Niger Delta Report, Sam described the pollution in Ogoniland as large scale. He added that lives, basic needs and loss of livelihood are some of the losses suffered by the people.

Sam added that the key issues in the UNEP report was that Ogoniland was contaminated and also affected the farming and fishing practices of the people. He said the report enumerated social defects caused by the contamination.

He explained further that the recommendations of the report made the Federal Government establish the Hydro Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), which he described as a special agency of government to implement the UNEP Report. He, however, observed that the Federal Government did not do establish the Ogoni Restoration Agency before asking HYREP to begin clean-up.

Sam said: “Government thought of establishing an agency which will have roles in other States. They then decided to setup the Hydro Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) which is HYPREP. In government understanding that is not an agency, it is a project and so it does not have a legal backing. Therefore, the responsibilities of HYPREP are gazette. The next government can come and say that HYPREP is not our attention, so they would push it aside and do other things.

“In terms of the Ogoni, what we have is the Ogoni bill of right, and environment is just aspect of the bill of right. At the moment, we cannot say that what Ken Saro-Wiwa and other nine died for is in vain because we are seeing the political will from this present government that they want to clean-up Ogoniland.”

He also observed that the eight emergency requirements, which would have helped the clean-up process, were not implemented. According to him, all drinking water wells with hydrocarbons were supposed to be marked to prevent the people from danger. Another is the non-implementation of the recommendation that a medical registry should be opened for the people in Nsisioken/Ogale, whose water have over 900 times the recommended benzene. Their health statuses are supposed to be assessed and followed up. Sam added that instead of doing these, the Goodluck Jonathan administration brought in tanks of water to some communities.

Under the President Muhammadu administration, he said HYREP carried out water reticulation. “Reticulation is about understanding where the pipe passes, the operational conditions of the pipes, if they are they rusty and if the pipes are free for water pass through,” he explained, adding:  ”The main thing they were supposed to achieve was the provision of potable water in local communities. So water reticulation could be long-term plan, if you want to provide a sustainable structure for the provision. But while you are doing that, there should be a plan to ensure that people will get potable drinking water so that at least people that are close to having cancer can break that chain. That is also not being done.”

He went on: “It is the responsibility of government to safeguard lives and property and one of the things you have to do to safeguard lives and properties is to provide water. It is basic for people to have access to potable drinking water. So if what you have to do is to truck water in the short term to ensure that people have access to potable drinking water, we expected that, that should have been carried out by HYPREP. HYPREP is in the process of developing a very comprehensive work plan for to assist people who are drinking polluted water in the community, which is one of the emergency measures.”

On health audit, Sam said: “HYREP carried out health outreach instead of health audit. The difference between health outreach and audit is that in health outreach, people are diagnosed; if they have malaria, they are provided with malaria drugs, and if they need to be operated, then a surgical operation is provided for them. In health audit, you take blood sample from people with a guided plan, then you analyse the blood samples for traces of heavy metals.

“Health audit is not only to test people and find out if they have malaria, you can do health audit to build trust, and you can do it as a community entry. We are supposed to test water in Ogoni land to see if they still contain contaminations. In all polluted sites in Ogoni, we are supposed to have a signboard stating don’t drink, don’t swim, don’t use this water even for washing. We don’t have that in place; we only have a few communities where the previous HYPREP posted some of those billboards.

“Two communities in Ogale Clan–Ekpangbala and Agbi have contaminated water wells that are yet to be marked and people still use water from these wells for different purposes.”

The Ogoni cleanup status

Sam said HYPREP last October awarded the cleanup contracts to 21 firms, adding that 13 sites were apportioned into 21 lots. He called for the development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

He said: “The clean-up is in three phases. The UNEP Report stated that it is going to take 25-30 years for us to achieve the clean-up. HYPREP is not doing clean up, but because of the name tag we call it clean up. What they should be doing is remediation and restoration. In terms of remediation, HYPREP has not started remediation, and clean up. They have given contracts to 21 firms.

“The media should do a profiling of those companies to see their abilities and capacities. There are a lot of things indigenous companies can do such as demonstrating capacity in remediation projects before they are given remediation projects. Before now, there was a pilot site where HYPREP said if you have the technology, come and pilot it.

“People took the opportunity of doing that and when they did that, they formed an association of those that did piloting because they had to protect their interests. They had to ensure that the contracts got to them because they had done the contract and had incurred costs in piloting.

“Those were conditions which HYPREP also considered. What is the probability of dig and dump? It is even more than one because we don’t have where to take the wastes to so it is a serious problem. Once they start the remediation in January, you have to build a site where you take the wastes to.

“It is a serious problem. In the UNEP Report, they recommended an integrated management centre and that centre was supposed to be built, but HYPREP was planning for governing council and board of trustee.

“The centre will take at least 18 months to build and that is when we want to import everything. If we want to patronise local industries to fabricate some of the parts, it will be double the 18 months period.”

He urged HYPREP to:

• Highlight a short term measure for providing potable drinking water;
• Provide signage for all contaminated water wells and polluted sites in Ogoniland;
• Develop a robust livelihood/economic empowerment package/program for local community members;
• Develop a ‘fit for purpose’ communication and engagement strategy for Ogoniland;
• Massively engage impacted communities (not with community heads) to discuss criteria for selection of sites, particularly for the first phase of the clean-up;
• Engage experts with local technical knowledge of Ogonilandto develop a region specific Target value for the Ogoni;
• Develop a work plan that indicates short, mid, and long term goals of the project lifecycle;
• Urgently commence the development of the Centre for Excellence and ICSMC;
• The Ogoni clean-up is a multi-stakeholder project and HYPREP has the opportunity to leverage on the resources of other stakeholders to succeed;
• Ensure adequate planning to suit available procurement legislations in the country;
• Initiate a quarterly transparency and accountability meeting open to all stakeholders –use such platforms to gain trust and confidence and validate the integrity of HYPREP; and
• Set up a database for the information on the remediation process

For government, Sam advised:

• Consider the independence of HYPREP as a necessity;
• Where possible relax procurement processes to enable HYPREP function promptly and effectively;
• Demonstrate financial and scientific commitment to remediate polluted areas;
• Developed and establish ‘fit for purpose’ intervention and target values;
• Ease the procurement process to facilitate the acquisition of resources for the remediation process;
• Develop a sustainable framework for the deposition of funds in HYPREP’s escrow account to avert paucity of the remediation process;
• Enforce the independence of HYPREP to undertake its roles and responsibilities;
• Enact adequate policies and legislation to prevent new spills;
• Facilitate the delineation of government agencies undertaking overlapping roles and responsibilities in the environment sector
• Government at different levels to collaborate to ensure the provision of basic amenities in local communities; and
• Partner international bodies and donor organizations to secure support for the remediation process.

He also thinks the impacted communities have a lot to contribute for the process to end well. His recommendations to them are:

• To discourage all artisanal refining activities in their communities;
• Paramount rulers to take affirmative action on their subjects involved in artisanal refining and pipeline interference;
• To build a cordial relationship with remediation contractors in their communities;
• Cooperate with HYPREP officials during further delineation actions on impacted sites;
• Provide all necessary supports to HYPREP, oil industry operators and the government to implement the UNEP report recommendations;
• Develop internal communal mechanisms for supporting the clean-up process;
• Use different communal platforms to create awareness and sensitize the local population on the deliverables of the remediation exercise; and
• Engineer and partner community based organisations and faith based organizations to sensitize deviant youths in the communities.

He urged CSOs to lobby relevant stakeholders to demonstrate commitment to the remediation exercise; lead advocacy visits to relevant government agencies to ensure the remediation of polluted sites in Ogoniland and beyond; facilitate peace building processes between relevant stakeholder’s particularly impacted communities and the oil industry operators and propagate early warning signals for conflict related issues that could impede the Ogoni cleanup.

Sam said: “Ogoni clean-up is a multi-stakeholder project –the media is indispensable. HYPREP must take leadership in every sphere of the clean-up. Urgent action should be taken to implement the emergency measures. The federal government should allow for the independence of HYPREP. Sustainable funding framework should be developed with multi-stakeholder inputs. Actions must be taken by all stakeholders to help HYPREP address challenges.”

Edo State House of Assembly only female candidate seeking to represent Oredo West Constituency, Miss Charity Idahosa, says she is being sexually harassed by men over her ambition.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Idahosa, contesting under the platform of Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA), made the allegation in a chat with newsmen in Benin on Thursday.

She described the experience as frustrating, and a recurring negative trend against women in politics.

“Well it has been mixed feelings. I came into politics with the desire to make a change and contribute my quota to the development of Oredo West constituency.

“It will be shocking to note that people I had looked up to for support often asked for sexual gratification before giving their support and for me it absurd and unacceptable.”

The MAJA party candidate who declined to mention names added: “I know this may sound funny but it is real.

“There are a lot of women out there that cannot speak out on some of their unpleasant encounters and experiences.

“I think it is time for Nigeria women to rise against this trend. We need to be protected and supported.”

The MAJA candidate, however, vowed to remain undaunted in her desire to contest the state assembly election in spite of the frustration and lack of support.

Idahosa stressed that female candidates require a law to protect them from all forms of harassment in the pursuit of their political ambitions.

Yiaga Africa, a pro-youth advocacy organisation, has launched a new television programme to support youth candidates running for political offices in this year’s general elections.

The show, tagged ‘Ready to run’, according to a statement by the Executive Director of YIAGA AFRICA, Samson Itodo, will address the challenge of limited access to the media by the young candidates in different parts of the country.

The show, which will air on Channels Television every Sunday, between 6:15pm and 7:00pm, will kick off on Sunday.

According to Itodo, the programme would provide an avenue for young candidates from different parts of the country to come out to showcase their capabilities and competence in providing quality public leadership for their people.

Itodo said the Ready To Run TV show is a joint partnership between YIAGA AFRICA, #NotTooYoungToRun Movement, Channels Television, Premium Times and supported by the European Union.

“Most youth candidates running in the 2019 elections are faced with the challenge of limited access to the media or low media coverage. This is further exacerbated by the high cost of engaging media during electoral campaign.

“The TV show is designed to address this challenge by providing a unique opportunity for youth candidates to showcase their competence, capacity and commitment to excellent public leadership. Every week, youth candidates running for legislative and executive positions will be featured to engage voters on their manifestos and agenda.

“An upsurge in public demand for qualitative and accountable public leadership is expected through the show hence the integration of a public engagement segment with youth candidates through tweets, Facebook posts and SMS based interactive platform.

“To complement existing capacity building initiatives for youth candidates, Ready To Run TV show will feature an exciting political organising lab to equip candidates with skills and tactics for running effective electoral campaigns”.

Our nation’s political space has been filled with talk of not allowing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) take us back to Egypt by chieftains of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). The APC leadership had  a few days ago during a political campaign, told Nigerians that Moses  would not want to return to Egypt after crossing the Red Sea.

This echoed the position of the Minister of Information, Lai Muhammed who in August during a Sallah Celebration urged Nigerians to “Be vigilant, don’t return Nigeria to Egypt”. It was in his Sallah message delivered at a media briefing at his home town, Oro, near Ilorin in Kwara State.

It is imperative yet sad to note that the APC as opposition in Akwa Ibom State is hell bent on taking, not only Akwa Ibom but Nigeria back to Egypt with its inordinate ambition to change the leadership of the State House of Assembly and  to impeach Governor Udom Emmanuel.

This desperation takes us back to 2006, an era of political brigandage, legislative recklessness, abuse of legislative powers and process, and legislative impunity sponsored by the Federal Government. It also brings to bare, their poor knowledge of history.

The powers of impeachment in the Nigerian constitution, provides a means of checking the excesses of certain executive officers who enjoy the privilege of constitutional immunity against civil or criminal proceedings whilst they are in office. It is however, the wrong implementation of it that we saw in the recent political happenstance in Akwa Ibom State, once again bringing to fore, memories of 2006.

Back in 2006, there was a brazen attempt to breach constitutional provisions with enormous impunity, suggesting that the federal government is once again complicit in these matters as it was in the past.

The impeachment of two Governors in 2006 readily comes to mind when one really wants to appreciate how much the APC wants to drag us back to the era of “nascent democracy”.

The first instance was on 12 January 2006, when the then Governor of Oyo State was impeached by legislators and forced out of office. His deputy, Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, was sworn in as the new governor. This legislative rascality was eventually overturned on 1 November 2006 by the Appeal Court in the state capital, Ibadan, which declared the impeachment null and illegal, but advised waiting for confirmation of this decision by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the decision on November 11, 2009, and Governor Rasheed Ladoja officially resumed office on December 12, 2006.

The second instance which had its imprint on the failed attempt in Akwa Ibom was the impeachment of the then Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye.

Governor Dariye of Plateau State of Nigeria was on 13th November 2006 impeached from office after a legislative panel set up to try him for corruption submitted its findings to a five-man House of Assembly group that had firmly enjoyed the support of the Federal Government.

The panel submitted its report as early as 6:00am on the said day, and the five-man house of assembly met under tight security, impeached the governor, and the Deputy Governor, Michael Botmang was immediately sworn in. This too was reversed by the court.

It was obvious this was the script the APC was acting out when Idongesit Ituen, member, representing Itu constituency at the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, appearing on national television exhibited extreme naivety and desperation by saying “When the three of us entered the House of Assembly, we didn’t see the other members and we didn’t see the speaker. So we elected a new speaker to replace Barr. Onofiok Luke. We also suspended all the other members who failed to attend that sitting. So we formed a quorum since all the other members were suspended.” This indeed is a new enviable height of political brigandage.

We could have gone back to the dark era and been unmindful of how close the termination of this dispensation. The APC would have successfully robbed the good people of Akwa Ibom, their access to good governance as the judicial wheels move slowly in Nigeria.

Reasons to commend Governor Udom Emmanuel, include his bold move by leading his cabinet and people of Akwa Ibom State to the premises of the State House of Assembly to protect democracy and to resist the return journey to Egypt. At this time, Ntuen and his colleagues had arrived the assembly chamber early before plenary with the sole intent to impeach the governor. The presence of Governor Udom thwarted their plan as it created an atmosphere for the people of Akwa Ibom to take their destinies in their hands, by moving against the lawmakers as the relevant agencies and institution of governance which were to protect democracy and instill sanctity of due process were obviously biased and protecting some vested interests.

In the build-up to this assault on democracy, some thugs had reportedly invaded the Assembly complex and prevented members from gaining access to the building just a week earlier. But that move was resisted as police stepped in and restored normalcy. An action which obviously did not go down well with the APC-led federal government as the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole issued a statement, condemning the police commissioner, John Abang, whom he accused of being political.

One could speculate Oshiomhole accusation was borne out of frustration because the Commissioner of Police refused to carry out orders to provide security cover that would enable the minority lawmakers execute their evil agenda.

There was a change in the leadership of the police in the State, and with new Commissioner of Police, Hyelasinda Musa Kimo, the APC feel they have a foolproof plan in place as they now have a Police Chief who will do their bidding. A hope dashed and killed by the determination of people of Akwa Ibom State, who know what they want and what is good for them.

The quest for Akwa Ibom only further validates the claims by Peoples Democratic Party that there was a grand plan by the APC to forcefully takeover some states in the South-south, with focus said to be on Rivers and Akwa Ibom before and after the 2019 elections.

Therefore, when the occupation of the State House of Assembly started weeks before the agenda was finally killed, it took the police another week to lift the siege. It was alleged in some quarters that it was a strategy to make it possible for the APC-led federal government to declare a state of emergency and pave the way for easy manipulations of election results in 2019.

In all these chaos, it seems that ex-governor of the state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who recently defected to the APC is one of the major mastermind of move. He has not hidden his desire to get the state back for APC, just to prove his political relevance. A reason why he has been desperate and needlessly aggressive since his defection.

The attempt to forcibly change leadership in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and by extension, remove Governor Emmanuel leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. An event which makes one question the patriotism and adherence to the “Rule of Law” expected of any government in power.

While I expect the APC-led government to abandon its inordinate agenda which is dead on arrival, kudos to Governor Emmanuel Udom and the good people of Akwa Ibom for resisting the attempt to take us back to Egypt.

• Saka, Social Activist, lives in Abuja