Deep Seaport: Udom’s Comment On Oron Shocks Former PDP Chairman
By UbongAbasi Ise
Governor Udom Emmanuel’s remark on Oro nation over the delay in the implementation of the Ibom Deep seaport project has continued to draw reactions from top personalities of Oron extraction.
In a phone conversation with The Sensor, Otu Ita Toyo, a former chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, and now a political stalwart in the fold of the All Progressives Congress, APC, expressed shock that Governor Udom Emmanuel could shift responsibility of possible failure in the implementation of deep seaport project to Oron people in a live broadcast.
“I never believe that a governor would say that. So I am still in shock. If I did not see that event on video, I would never have believed that a governor of my state would make such a statement, particularly, over event which I am aware of. But I am still in shocks so when I get over the shock, I would then make a statement,” he said.
Toyo further said Ibaka has been a favoured position of the deep seaport project since the 1950s, adding that everything Oro nation has done is to ensure that the deep seaport is built and implemented properly.
It would be recalled that the state governor, over weekend in a media chat, stressed that challenges facing the implementation of Ibom Deep seaport project stem from petitions written apparently against the location and naming of the project by Oro nation which scare the investors.
“Oro people are the problem of Ibom Deep Seaport Project. They have written a lot of petitions to drive away investors. If I leave office without achieving that project, hold them responsible, not me.”
In one of the petitions sighted by our correspondent dated March 15, 2021 and addressed to Governor Udom Emmanuel by Oron Union, the letter was against what Oron Union termed as the relocation of ‘Ibaka’ Deep Seaport from the preferred location near the natural harbour at Ibaka Bay, to be built as a dug-out port, which they claimed to be an artificial ocean created on land. Secondly the petition speculated against digging out an artificial ocean (1km2) out of scarce land anywhere near Oron nation; and dumping of excavated sand near Oron land and water territory.
The petition reads, “we the people of Oro (Oron) nation unanimously write to express our opposition and rejection of the planned relocation of Ibaka Deep Seaport from Okposo, near Ibaka Bay in Oron nation, which had been extensively studied and established as a preferred location by many experts, to a fresh site (Ibeno) where it is to be built as a dug-out port. The existence of a natural harbour at Ibaka was what led the government of Obong Victor Attah in 2003 to conceptualize the Ibaka Deep Seaport and the existence of a natural habour at Ibaka was also reflected in the SWOT analysis in the Due Diligence studies report by experts as a major strength of the Ibaka Deep seaport project. Oron nation therefore views the planned relocation of Ibaka Deep Seaport out of Oron nation where a natural harbour exists, to be built as a dug-out port in an artificial ocean at Ibeno, as nothing but as an attempt at continuous deprivation of Oron nation due to its ethnic minority status.”
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