Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Deacon Udom Emmanuel, barely eight days after his resumption on May 29, 2015 had set up and inaugurated a 10-member Technical Committee on the Realisation of Ibom Deep Seaport with Barr. (Mrs.) Mfon Usoro, a one-time Director-General of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) as Chairman precisely on June 7, 2015.
Sources revealed that the choice of Ibaka for the proposed seaport dated back to 1952 by the British Government, and a feasibility study to that effect submitted to the British Crown even before the shallow and inland water ports at Calabar and Port Harcourt were established.
Maritime analysts posited that Ibaka is the most viable location for the seaport, going by the deep sea draught of 16m, which would need no dredging as well as the strategic proximity of the proposed port to the corridors of the main Gulf of Guinea and the commercial cities of Aba and Onitsha. It’s nearness to Exxon Mobil and other major oil concerns as well as the Sao Tome and Principe is equally a great advantage to the nation’s economic drive.
However, in a world press conference which was scheduled by the Nlap Isong Akpakip Oro and the tink tanks of Oro nation to raise questions about an alleged relocation of the Ibakka Sea Port to Ibeno LGA and the conversion of the Maritime Academy in Oron to a university, Dr. Akon Eyakenyi; a member of the Ibakka sea port technical committee was said to have “bluntly refused to make appearance” as she was allegedly “afraid to face the Oro leadership committee”, having three years back, uncovered the Akwa Ibom State government’s plan for relocating the seaport to Ibeno.
“Of course, what do you think she has to say? The best she could do was to stay back because she had already told us the truth three months after their committee had started work” Godwin Ettah said.
It became glaring that the said allegation was actually true. In July 2018, Commissioner for Housing and special duties, Mr. Akan Okon had briefed the press saying that the most important thing for the project was getting a preferred bidder.
“We have done that. The bidders’ conference was held in May this year in Uyo. Now we are going to go into negotiations with them, and sign the necessary agreements which would be sent to the federal government for approval, and when that is done, I can assure you that the construction of the Port will now commence”.
Every thinking brain would realise that if the Ibakka sea port, a roborst project capable of changing the entire economic face of the Oro-nation, region and Akwa-Ibom as a whole were a priority for the state government, It would have been given apt attention instead of running after white elephant projects merely meant for showmanship and hypnosis of gullible citizens and the people of the Oro nation in a bid for re-election.
