The Obolo people of Akwa Ibom, consisting of Mbo, Ibeno, and Eastern Obolo local government areas, have dragged Governor Udom Emmanuel to court over his administration’s insistence to remap the state.
This is coming a few days before the governor, a former banker, exits office as the Akwa Ibom chief executive.
The matter is said to have created enormous tension across the state, especially as the remapping is being done less than three weeks before Governor Emmanuel leaves office.
Leaders in the area say the governor’s move is a last-ditch effort to give an advantage to his local government area to benefit from the allocation of funds from the Petroleum Industry Act.
Governor Emmanuel, 56, is from Onna local government area of the oil-rich south-south state.
In a statement sent to journalists, the Obolo leaders said: ”The governor secretly sponsored a bill through the state House of Assembly to enable him to remap the state to bring Onna, his local government of origin, to the Atlantic Ocean.
”In a landmark judgement delivered in January 2022, the court ordered that the exercise be stopped and wholly discontinued for being unconstitutional.”
The leaders further said the governor’s action tends to cede, annex, and conscript some existing Obolo villages into other local government areas.
”Many people have continued to wonder at the insensitivity of the governor, especially as his actions are capable of causing an outright tribal war and leaving an extremely unmanageable state for the incoming administration,” they warned.
They also stated that: ”The governor’s action leaves much to be desired on the one hand, and a lot to worry about.
”This is a sinister scheme by him to send a signal to the Obolo people and cow them into submission.”
