Where Is Akan Weeks (2)
By UbongAbasi Ise
Cont. from Monday 11th December 2017, pg 3
One may not understand the
gravity of December 10, 2016 incident until they get the grasp of the ravages the
affected persons are living with for more than a year now. Since the hastily
reticulated, strange contraption called roof at Reigners caved in, things are
no longer the same for many. Besides heavy claims on human lives, ways and
pattern of lives of many people have been altered in a very terrible way; they have endured enough; their eyes have been scalded with
tears; and yet silence seems to permanently take the place of justice.
To say the truth with all sense of fairness, a lot of
people that went to the failed occasion of bishopric enthronement did not just
go there because they love Akan Weeks’s face, rather they were attracted to
that Golgotha of death at Uyo Village road courtesy of the presence of the
state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel. Of course it is natural for people to flock
around their leader at any function. Indeed, the governor had led a sizable cavalcade
of top government functionaries to make the event a scintillating one. Public
attention was swayed to the Reigners Bible Church on December 10, 2016. The
venue became a platform where who-is-who in the society would congregate; where
old ties with the power class would be rekindled. It was a suitable place where
old friendship could be re-strengthened with the governor. If there was a
chance, individuals or groups would have come out to express solidarity for the
governor beyond 2019. But the flying steels and sheets ended it all.
The roof
fell, lives ended, several got wounded, the calamity reign, but where is the
governor’s empathy?
Late Evang. (Mrs.) Clara Ekpo, a staunch Christian
and woman political leader from Ikot Abasi, had lost her life in the Reigners
mishap. According to her son, Mr. Ikakke-Abasi Ekpo, her painful death came
after a week she helped women group organized a resounding reception in Ikot Abasi
for the wife of the state governor, Mrs. Martha Emmanuel. Her body was interred
on 25th February, 2017 with absolutely no assistance from
government. The deceased family had to source for money from left, right and
centre to bury their dead.
Late Clara was a breadwinner. Her family is having
hard time surviving today – where is Akan Weeks? Where is the state government?
Mrs. Rose Tom at Nsukara Offot lost her husband to
the flying steels and sheets of Reigners the same day she was put to bed. Her
husband, Mr. Nkereuwem was 45 when he was struck dead by the fallen truss. It
can be tough and daunting for a nursing mother to fend for a young family with
enormous trauma emanating from the horrible death of her husband. Rose is
strong anyway; she is struggling today with absolutely no help from government,
all alone.
Mrs. Uduak Akpan from Etinan was turned a widow
overnight at the wake of the Reigners Church collapse. Her late husband, Pastor
Friday Akpan, 52 at the time of death, was buried in May 2017. Mrs. Akpan told
our correspondent that she had to borrow money just to bury her husband because
the body was staying in the mortuary for long while no response came from the state
government. Today, Mrs. Uduak Akpan is struggling all alone to get her children
through university education.
When speaking with Ms. Mercy Udo who lost her sister,
Peace, in the tragedy, I could sense pent up frustration and anguish in her
tone. She was furious at the grotesque aloofness of the state government over
the whole Reigners affairs, and demanded that Akan Weeks should provide answers
to what happened to her sister. She demanded to know what happened to the
report of the investigative panel and why government refuse to act after one
year the tragedy occurred.
But what happened to the report of the investigative
panel? Why is it still in the deep
freezer since July 2017 after the Commission of Inquiry chaired by Justice
Umoekeyo Essang delivered the report to Governor Udom Emmanuel at the executive
chambers of the Government House? The state government should know that each
day that rolls by is not just swiveling to the cloud of history, but represent
the elongation of the suffering of the Reigners victims. It is the mellifluous
sound of justice that would calm the hearts of the weeping victims.
The implementation of provisions of the report can’t
just wait another day because when water stays long in the mouth, it becomes
spittle. Although the terms of reference of the Commission of Inquiry carefully
elided the issue of compensation, it would make the victims and their families
know that they are not condescended to. Despicable negligence by the government
of Udom Emmanuel is a bad marriage to the deepening gloom of the Reigners
victims.
At this point, I remained thankful to the concerned
Akwa Ibomites who keyed into the initiative of Mr. Tony Afia, the Chairman of
Planet FM, who in the company of the counsel to the victims and the estates of
the dead, Barr. Clifford Thomas, reached out to 55 Reigners victims and their
families. Over N3.4 million was donated and distributed to the victims to cushion
the insidious effect of the misfortune: 20 relatives of the deceased received
N100,000 each; 18 persons whose injuries were in the process of healing went
home with N30,000 each; 11 people with serious injuries were given N40,000 per
person; and 6 persons with fatal and very serious life-threatening injuries
were supported with over N75,000 each.
Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For Comment, send SMS to 08189914609 | Email:
ubongabasiise@gmail.com
Source: The Sensor Newspaper
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