NTO ANNANG YOUTH MANDATE
Unity, Progress and development
Old Itu Road
Ikot Ekpene
Akwa Ibom State
Your Excellency
OPEN LETTER TO DEACON UDOM EMMANUEL:
This lodge is not a priority; Complete Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road
INTRODUCTION
This is the third letter we are writing you this year, but the first we are making public. Since we did not receive any response to the first two, we assume that you might not have seen them. By making this an open letter, there’s no doubt that you will read this and we, undoubtedly, expect a reply.
Your Excellency, we are a socio-political association duly registered with the CAC in 2009. Our mandate is to protect and project the interest of Annang people of Akwa Ibom State, especially the youths who constitutes the bulk of our membership and population.
We have keenly followed the debates on the plan by the state government to build a new Governor’s Lodge in Ikoyi, Lagos. While government officials, including the governor, have announced that N1.2 billion has been budgeted for the project, many other commentators insist that the project’s total cost is N9.1 billion. They argue that more provisions would be made in subsequent budgets to cover the total cost. At whatever cost, we believe that this project is not only a waste of resources and misplaced priority, it is indeed a reflection of the governor’s insensitivity to the entire Annang people. Your Excellency, for over two years that you’ve been governor, the state government has refused to complete the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road started by your predecessor, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The senator himself feels let down; but it is all the more painful to Annang people that despite our role in the emergence of His Excellency as the governor and in spite of pleas and entreaties from Senator Akpabio, our traditional rulers, clergies and key stakeholders, the governor has refused to complete the road. Equally saddening is the fact that the governor has failed to fulfil a major campaign promise he made to our people: building an international market that traverses Ikot Ekpene and Obot Akara LGAs. In addition, the inability or refusal of the government to build new roads in the five local government areas of Abak, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ukanafun and Oruk Anam (popularly called Abak Five) is a constant jar on our emotions. Your Excellency, why are you repaying our goodness and support to you with ingratitude? How can you contemplate to spend billions on a new building in Lagos State, when that money would have been used to complete the all-important Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road? Is it not selfishness and insensitivity for your Administration to have constructed all the roads in Onna, the governor’s LGA and launched a massive urban renewal of Eket town, and yet refuse to, or neglect to do something about our plight in the eight LGAs of Annangland? Does this not amount to a slight and betrayal of our leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who risked everything and spared no costs to make you governor? Your Excellency, why have you forgotten so soon all the assurances you gave to Senator Akpabio before your election that you’d never betray or disappoint him? Why have you forgotten your pledge to Senator Akpabio that you will complete the Four Point by Sheraton Hotel project in Ikot Ekpene? What manner of governor will so brazenly turn against his mentor and benefactor, and indeed, his large support base in so short a time?
Finally, we wish to remind His Excellency that of all the major arteries that radiate from the central business district of Uyo to the neighbouring LGAs, it is only the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene highway that is left abandoned. We can only hope for equity and justice.
Thank you.
Please accept the assurances of our highest esteem.
We remain yours sincerely,
Dr. Ubong Udoette Barr. Aniedi Akpan
PRO President
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