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 Daily Champion 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 Daily Champion, 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
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