Mr. Nsikak Ekong, member representing Ikot Ekpene, Essien Udim, Obot Akara federal constituency, who is building a motor park with his community primary school in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.
By Abasifreke Effiong & Kufre Etuk
Crisis has sparked off in Ikot Ekpene local government area, Akwa Ibom State over the unthoughtfulness of a member of the House of Representatives who is building a motor park within his community primary school.
The motor park, a Sustainable Development Goals project attracted by the member representing Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara and Essien Udim federal constituency, Mr. Nsikak Ekong, is built within Government primary school 1, Uruk Uso, Ikot Ekpene local government area, the hometown of the federal lawmaker.
The motor park is built on part of the school land which was reserved for the building of a vocational centre, the host community said.
Journalists who asked questions to know why the motor park is sited on the school land were insulted and threatened on phone to steer clear of the community by a Personal Assistant to the federal lawmaker.
Elites in the project host community, Uruk Uso, are at daggers drawn against the village head and members of the village council over their inability to stop the phony constituency project.
The elites said having a motor park inside a school poses serious threat to the community primary school attended by well over 1000 pupils.
A sideview of the ‘ultra-modern motor park’ build inside Government Primary School 1, Uruk Uso, Ikot Ekpene local government area by Mr. Nsikak Ekong, a member of the House of Representatives. (Credit: Abasifreke Effiong – The Dune)
The Uruk Uso village council said it did not allocate the land to Mr. Nsikak Ekong, for the motor park project.
The village head, Eteidung Akpan Udo Odung, said the federal lawmaker invaded the community and encroached on the land belonging to the government primary school and built the motor park on the land.
“People have accused us of allocating a land to Hon. Nsikak Ekong to build a motor park and I have told them that no sensible person would allocate or allow anyone to build a motor park inside a school. I know the value of education and the ambience the surrounding of a school requires.”
“Uruk Uso village council is aware that the land the lawmaker is constructing that motor park belongs to Government School 1, Uruk Uso. The part of the school land the Honourable has used to build the park was reserved for vocational college”, the village head said.
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Eteidung Odung emphasised that the village council was not involved in the conception, sitting and implementation of the project which is variously said to be a waste of government funds.
The village head said, “I don’t think that project is for the benefit of the people. It is a selfish thing. How can a sensible person approve the building of a motor park inside a school?”
Multiple sources in the community said need assessment was not conducted before the project was brought to the community.
However, the federal lawmaker, Mr. Nsikak Ekong, insisted that the village donated the land for the motor park project.
When this reporters asked the lawmaker to show them a letter where the community allocated the land for the motor park, he did not.
“The village council donated the land to the council to build and the (local government) council donated the land to me to build an altra-modern motor park.”
“If you come to Ikot Ekpene, it is an eyesore. Around the Four Point by Sheraton hotel, cars are packed everywhere, so the ultra-modern motor park is to ensure that cars are not loaded on the roadside around the hotel”, the federal lawmaker said on phone trying to buttress the need for the motor park project.
Mr. Ekong said the area of the school land used for the motor park project is not big enough for a vocational centre.
Meanwhile, correspondences from Uruk Uso village council, the Head Mistress of Government School 1 Uruk Uso and the Education Secretary in Ikot Ekpene, obtained by The Dune indicate that Mr. Nsikak Ekong, did not obtained consent and approval from the village, the school or the State Universal Basic Education Board.
A reply from Uruk Uso village council to the Chairman of Ikot Ekpene local government area, Mr. Unyime Etim, on request for land for constituency project.
It was gathered that the Chairman of Ikot Ekpene local government area, Mr. Unyime Etim, had in a letter referenced TLG/ADM/13/S.I/297, with the title, “request for land for the establishment of constituency project”, asked Uruk Uso community to donate a land for the sitting of a project.
The letter did not state the type of project.
The letter reads, “the Local Government Council in partnership with the member representing Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara, Essien Udim federal constituency in the National Assembly have attracted a federal project to the Local Government Area. This project when completed will serve as a means of empowering our youths, reduce the rate of youths restiveness and also eliminate poverty and redundancy of our youths within the local government”.
“In view of the above, and as part of government determinations in establishing the project within the urban areas, to serve as a central point connecting the entire local government, I therefore, request for a parcel of land from the village to ensure that establishment of this project that will serve as a golden opportunity for development and empowerment.”
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The village head of Uruk Uso said they wrote back to the local government chairman asking him to state the nature of the project that the land so requested would be used for, but their letter was not responded to.
The letter written by the village council to the Chairman of Ikot Ekpene local government area, dated 21st December, 2020 reads in part, “Sir permit us to say that Uruk Uso village has a land and is willing to donate to your government for developmental purposes, but we need to know what project you want to site so as to know which area of land we donate, and a memorandum of understanding signed after your meeting with the village council and site inspection conducted”.
After showing journalists the village council’s reply to the local government chairman’s request for a land, the village head added that the council chairman “knew that if he said it is motor park, no body would accept it”, hence the reason they did not respond to the village council’s request for information on the nature of the project.
Despite reports to the Akwa Ibom State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, by the Head Mistress of the school, Mrs. Arit Tom Akpaoko and the Education Secretary in Ikot Ekpene local government area, Ms. Freda Umoh, the state government failed to stop the construction of the motor park on the school land.
A letter written to Akwa Ibom State Universal Basic Education Board by the Education Secretary in Ikot Ekpene on encroachment on the Government Primary School 1, Uruk Uso.
Groups in Ikot Ekpene said they are disappointed in Mr. Nsikak Ekong’s arbitrariness, stressing that sitting a motor park within a school land smacks of insensitivity especially from a proprietor of a school, which the federal lawmaker is.
A youth group, Ikot Ekpene Youth Leadership Front, said shrouding a constituency project in secrecy indicates that the lawmaker was trying to cover up something.
The group accused Nsikak Ekong of attempting to use phoney constituency project to grab community land and vowed to resist his antics.
The group in a letter said, “…we are disappointed in the actions of Rt. Hon. Barr. Nsikak Ekong. We think that community involvement in the implementation of a constituency project is an integral part of open contracting and beneficial ownership of any project.”
“It amounts to waste of scarce resources to bring a project and throw it on a community because experience has shown that such project where the benefiting community was not part of its conceptualization and implementation are usually left as monuments.”
A section of the open ultra-modern motor park covered by weeds.
“We are disappointed because we think our dear Rt. Hon. Nsikak Ekong, who is a proprietor of a polytechnic should know that a school environment needs absolute tranquility. We are afraid that the noise pollution and the attendant ennui of such a place as motor park will filter into the porous school environment. We therefore call on the State Government to stop the operation of the motor park on the school land.”
• Nsikak Ekong’s aide threatens journalists, village head
One Mr. Emmanuel Umoette, report to be a Personal Assistant to the federal lawmaker threatened journalists who were investigating the land-grabbing allegation against his boss.
Umoette, speaking through the cellphone of the National Assembly member warned our reporter who phoned Mr. Nsikak Ekong, to get his side of the story, to steer clear of Uruk Uso.
“You are not from Uruk Uso, this is an Uruk Uso issue, so steer clear from it.”
Umoette also reportedly went and assaulted the village head of Uruk Uso, Eteidung Akpan Udo Odung, for speaking to Journalists.
The village head confirmed that the lawmaker’s aide came to his palace and rain abuses on his parents.
“Yes, he came here and insulted me. He told me that God will punish my parents”, the village head confirmed.
However, the lawmaker Mr. Nsikak Ekong, later phoned this reporters and apologize to them for the abuses and threats on them by his aide.
• State of the project
Barely, few months after the implementation of the project, part of the project area has been overgrown by weeds.
During a visit to the site of the project over the weekend, taxis were seen loading Ikot Ekpene to Uyo at the site.
However, the title of the project seen on a signage hoisted at the site reads, ‘road, electricity and water by special intervention’ and does not include a motor park.
Signage of the motor park project in Uruk Uso, Ikot Ekpene.
The project is a Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, job awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
Attempt by this reporters to contact the contractor implementing the project to find out all the components of the project was unsuccessful because the project signage does not include the address of the contractor.
Two indigenes of Uruk Uso who provided unskilled labour during the implementation of the project said they do not have the contact of the contractor of the project.
