NDDC: Don writes Buhari, faults Oro Nation’s Claims.

Chidi Tony/ Prof.Etie Ben Akpan, Professor of paleontology and Marine Ecology has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari in strong disapproval of a recent letter by Oron union to Mr President in which the union claimed that over 80%of the oil produced in Akwa ibom state emanated from their territory.

The university Don in his letter with the theme Re: letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on constitution of the management board of NDDC: Oron union and setting the records straight explained that Oro Nation or what is politically referred to as Oron Federal Constituency consists of the five (5) Local Government Areas of Mbo, Okobo, Oron, Urue Offong Oruko and Udung Uko stressing that it is incorrect to tag these 5 Local Government Areas as littoral or coastal as they do not directly abort the Atlantic Coastline.

According to him, “They may be regarded as shoreline Local Government Areas. The second issue is that it is absolutely untrue that the five (5) Oro Nation Local Government Areas are the largest oil/gas producing community accounting for over eighty percent (80%) of Akwa Ibom State oil production figure to the Federal purse.The implication from this Oron Union’s postulation is an attempt to cajole and misled the public to believing that Ibeno Local Government Area, Eket Local Government Area, Esit Eket Local Government Area, Onna Local Government Area, Ikot Abasi Local Government Area, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area and Eastern Obolo Local Government Area that are known and associated with the prolific oil wells of the Niger Delta

Basin are accountable to only less than twenty percent (20%) of the Akwa Ibom State total oil output.

Prof Akpan further highlighted, “The record with the DPR does not say so. The report of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC, 2000) recognized the following Local Government Areas as oil producing in Akwa Ibom State, they are: Ibeno, Eket, Esit Eket, Onna, Ikot Abasi, Eastern Obolo, Mkpat Enin and Mbo Local Government Areas. Each entity

has her quantum of oil production attached, and it would be ridiculous to think or expect any sensible person to believe that Mbo Local Government Area alone would have an oil production figure higher than the figures of the other seven(7) Local Government Areas combined, as Oron Union has repeatedly stated.

“The purpose of this response is to avail interested members of the public the opportunity to assess the issues at stake and decide for themselves whether or not Oron Union has “set the records straight” as she would want the public to believe”. He stated in the letter.

The Don described as uncharitable and unwarranted Oron Union’s write-up which portray both Eket and Esit Eket as being land locked Local Government Areas.” It is a known fact that the Ekid people of Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas are the bonafide owners of Akoiyak land of the south eastern Nigeria. This land is also known as the Stubb’s Creek Forest Reserve”.

The letter further read, “For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the geography and the environmental set-up, Akoiyak is a strip of mangrove swamp and wetland forest of a few kilometers in width, stretching from the left of Qua Iboe River estuary eastwards to Okposo fishing settlements and it aborts directly the Atlantic Seaboard”.

Earlier, Ekid People’s Union had in an open letter to the President Muhammadu Buhari endorsed by Dr Samuel Udonsak national president and Chief Usoro I Usoro national secretary in their bid to make a case for appointment of her indigenes into, the yet to be constituted Management Board of the NDDC urged him to respect the criteria for appointments into the Board as provided for by the NDDC Establishment Act 2000.

The Ekid union had noted that the Presidency did not follow the law in the appointment of the Executive Director, Finance and Administration (EDFA) into the last Interim Board, neither was the moral persuasion that presented itself at that time taken into consideration.

The union had argued that the EDFA position should have gone to somebody from Eket Local Government Area that has not produced any Board or Representative member, since the inception of NDDC in 2000 till now, instead of someone from Okobo Local Government Area; or in the alternative an indigene of Esit Eket Local Government Area should have been considered to compensate for the loss of Mr. Ibanga Etang from Esit Eket Local Government Area, the immediate past occupant of the office who died untimely in active service”.