Date Published: 06/29/09
RESTORING LOST GLORY OF AKWA IBOM
By Thomas Okon Uduak-Abasi
I feel sad, very sad indeed, for my State of Akwa Ibom, which up until recently was reputed to be the most peaceful state in the core Niger Delta region. Press reports from there concerning general crime wave, including those being blatantly committed today in the name of politics, cannot but disgust and nauseate any patriot. A typical report a couple of days ago said “kidnappers have gone on a rampage in the state just as the mother of a former Minister of State for the FCT, Abuja, Madam Grace James Akpan -Udoedehe as well as the state’s chairman of the Action Congress, Chief David Ekanem had escaped death by the whiskers.” This, according to DailyChampion of 10/6/09 “is coming barely three days after Pa Kelvin Edet, father of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly was taken hostage by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers.”
According to the paper, “Pa Edet’s kidnap was meant to arm-twist his son Hon. Ignatuis Edet to resign his position as a result of his influential position in the politics of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area. The paper further stated that the kidnappers had rejected a one billion Naira ransom meant to secure the old man’s release. Nothing but the resignation of his son from the strategic post of Speaker, the paper said, would appease the assailants. The Speaker is reported to have been “having protracted problems with his kinsmen” concerning his senatorial ambitions for 2011. But another report alleges that the kidnapping may have been arranged by the people in government in order to pretend that they are also being affected.
The former FCT Minister, Senator J. J. Akpan-Udoedehe, had his own share of the brush. According to DailyChampion, the ex-minister has traced the abortive attempt to kidnap his mother to political reprisal by the state government following “a recent interview he granted the press and his opposition to the present government in the state.” Commending the police for their courage in thwarting the assault on his mother the former minister, according to Champion, said security agents were doing their best in the circumstance “except that the state government was sponsoring political criminals in the guise of kidnapping of its opponents.” Senator Akpan-Udoedehe is in a position to know because, as a former campaign director of Governor Akpabio, he was a close confidant but now somehow conscience-stricken.
Between 1999 and 2007, throughout the volatile Niger Delta, Akwa Ibom state was the obvious delight of both tourists and investors alike. The other state in the region also noted for tranquility and peace next to Akwa Ibom was Cross River, which to the glory of God; Governor Lyel Imoke has tried to maintain so till date. Unfortunately, however, suddenly peace snapped and the demons took over in Akwa Ibom State where they have been on the prowl killing, maiming, and kidnapping since the second half of 2007. And the situation has been worsening by the day to the extent that today, even in the presence of a relatively well-kitted security task force, cases of violent crime, particularly kidnapping, occur freely. Not even the recent enactment of a law punishing kidnapping with death penalty seems to be an effective deterrent against the crime. Why? Why are the perpetrators of these crimes so daring and audacious in a State whose increase in revenue should have meant increase in tranquility and peace?
The answer, if we must stop deceiving ourselves, is that here in Akwa Ibom state today kidnapping as a terrible crime against humanity has assumed the dimension of an organized crime, aided and abated mostly wittingly by power-intoxicated politicians who, afraid of opposition and clean contest, would stop at nothing to scale any real or imaginary hurdle on their way to 2011 - the same 2011 which President Yar’ Adua had in his infinite humility and wisdom warned everyone to forget for now. So today, we face in Akwa Ibom the same avoidable quagmire, the same unholy scenario whereby soon after the 1999 elections in River State, politicians in power and afraid of potent opposition began to plan ahead for 2003 by recruiting and arming idle thugs and cultists. Are we not living witnesses to the stunning revelations by Mr. Ateke Tom and Dokubo Asari who, after falling out with their masters, told a gaping world that they were the agents of powerful politicians in government?
Little wonder shortly before he was transferred to another state, the former Commissioner in charge of Akwa Ibom state police command Mr. Mike Zuokumor remarked that the rising crime rate in the state could be seriously curtailed if the political leadership tried to live above board.
A few weeks later on May 12, ThisDay reported that a “former caretaker committee chairman of Abak LGA had been declared wanted by the police for alleged involvement in the kidnapping and eventual killing of Miss Aniefon Aniedi-Abasi, a 22 years old student. . The girl was the daughter of the present chairman of the same Abak LGA. The Akwa Ibom state Police Commissioner, Mr. Walter Rugbere said the ex-council boss was suspected to have connived with five others to commit the offence and escaped arrest when security men stormed his house where they found a revolver pistol, two SMGs, Berretta pistol, and hand grenade plus 50.9 mm bullets and a BMW car”.
Because no high profile case of kidnapping has ever been prosecuted in the state, the question many are now asking is whether the assailants of Miss Aniedi-Abasi would ever be brought to book. Recall that after his freedom from the hands of kidnappers, the Chairman of Essien Udim LGA Mr. Nse Ntuen publicly expressed gratitude to the Governor for facilitating his release in a situation where his assailants had demanded for N500 million?
In the TELL magazine April 6, 2009, pager 39 was reported that the former Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Economic Planning under the present administration, Dr. Chris Ekong had in his written statement to the Police during the Stemco Nigeria Limited Lebanese (Khalil) kidnap saga, confirmed that he collected N5million in cash from the house of Don Etim, the Commissioner for Works to settle Khalil’s kidnappers. All this goes to lend some credence to the suspicion of official complicity in the kidnapping problem which may have become another lucrative avenue for money laundering.
In fact, judging from circumstances surrounding the recent abduction of the Speaker’s father, his plight may well be a ploy to demonize the opposition whereas at the end of the day the sponsors would have invariably paid a huge ransom from public funds into their private pockets. Mr. Nse Utuen had revealed that he was imprisoned in what looked like “boys quarter”; why up till now has the state government not made efforts to locate the place and identify its owners? Before the situation in Akwa Ibom assumes a nightmarish level, which may require military solution with its attendant national and international outrage, the FG should step in now. Tomorrow may be too late.
Last February 27, The Nation reported that “second term fever” had gripped Akwa Ibom. The paper said that the Governor had formed a new organization known as Akwa Ibom Democratic Voice (ADV) after parting ways with the vicious AKPF. According to The Nation, they dumped AKPF and its leader Mr. Samuel Akpan because of the latter’s political ambition for 2011 and also because the government was no longer comfortable with his effective grip on not only AKPF itself but also the LG chairmen and the House of Assembly. However, it is too simplistic to think that a cult group such as the AKPF could be formed and safely dispensed with at will by ambitious politicians after such a group must have been diabolically equipped and effectively exploited for selfish political ends. Therefore, the FG should set up a high-powered judicial inquiry to determine whether there is any connection between the worrisome state of crime in Akwa Ibom and the existence of the AKPF and the ADV or any such cult formations. A stitch in time saves nine.
Dr. Thomas Uduak-Abasi, a political analyst lives in Lagos.
Plot 839 Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, Lagos
