By Soni Daniel, Abuja
Ekid-speaking people of Akwa Ibom State have again asked Governor Umo Eno to take necessary steps to implement various court rulings affirming their ownership of the Stubbs Creek Forest, rather than raising a new committee to adjudicate on the matter with their Ibeno neighbours.
The Ekid people insist that the land matter had since been resolved by the courts and does not need any further intervention by the state government, as the rulings are clear and unambiguous.
The position of the community is contained in a communique issued at the end of their consultative meeting held at Atan and Palace of the Paramount Ruler of Eket and made available to journalists on Monday in Abuja.
The communique was jointly signed by the Paramount Ruler, Obong ECD Abia, the President General of Ekit Peoples Union, Dr. Sam Udonsak, the National Secretary of the union, Barr. Bassey Dan-Abia and key stakeholders of Ekid Nationality.
At the expanded stakeholders meeting, the people rejected Akwa Ibom State governor’s proposed committee on Stubbs Creek Forest, saying that it was unnecessary and suspicious and requested for urgent implementation of previous court rulings on the matter.
The communique noted, “Apart from the suspicious composition, the stakeholders found the committee to be spurious and unnecessary in view of the numerous court judgments spanning over a century and the Statutes of the Legislature which the government has refused to implement.
“The Stakeholders have not found any legitimate basis for setting up a new Committee to review the court judgments, including those of the Privy Council in London of 1916 -1918. It has not found any explicable reason to review the statutes of the legislature on this matter. The Stakeholders believe that the proposed committee is an avenue to surreptitiously cover the illegal land deals in the Stubbs Creek and possibly request more concessions of land to the Ibeno people.
“We want to make it abundantly clear that the Ekid people will not make any more concessions to Ibeno in the Stubbs Creek Forest, as we have already conceded so much since their arrival on the Qua Iboe River estuary.
“By the same reasoning, the Ekid people cannot embrace the Governor’s Committee on Stubbs Creek Forest. The Ekid stakeholders will continue to stand by the existing court judgments affirming their ownership of the forest and its appurtenances. The Ekid people will firmly resist any attempt at the further balkanisation of the Forest, whether for the benefit of Ibeno or any other vested interest.
“The Government should implement its decision to demolish all illegal structures and set the forest free for a coordinated development in conjunction with the legitimate land owners. Akwa Ibom State Government should do the right thing and stop setting up another Committee and stop beating about the bush,” the people said.
“To understand why the Ekid Stakeholders cannot support Governor Umo Eno’s Committee on the Stubbs Creek Forest, one only needs to draw a parallel with a similar national dispute. After the International Court of Justice ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon and rendered Cross River State landlocked, the Cross River State Government began agitating for the return of 77 oil wells belonging to Akwa Ibom. In pursuit of this, Cross River dragged Akwa Ibom to the Supreme Court, but lost in a landmark judgment. Today, even as Cross River renews its claims on those oil wells, settled conclusively by the apex court, no one would expect the Akwa Ibom State Government to welcome a Federal Government committee to renegotiate the ownership of the oil wells.
“Ekid people would like the Governor to cast his mind back to the events of 1978 when the then Cross River State Government set up the Justice Olatawura Judicial Commission of Enquiry on the ownership of Stubbs Creek Forest. Oron hired the late Chief Awolowo as her Counsel, while the late Chief M. A. Ekpe and others represented Eket. On the opening day of the Commission’s sitting, Eket through her Counsel, Chief M. A. Ekpe, tabled the 1918 judgment of the Privy Council before the Commission and argued that under the legal principle of “res judicata” the Commission could not inquire into the ownership of Stubbs Creek Forest which had been settled by the highest court at the time. Chief Awolowo, a long-standing lawyer of high integrity who believed so much in the sanctity of court judgments, agreed with the legal team of Ekid people and recused himself from further participation. The Commission of Enquiry wound up on the first day of sitting.
“Again in 1993, Justice Ephraim Akpata, at a similar Commission of Inquiry on Stubbs Creek Forest ownership used the same legal principle to rule that the Ibenos should never be heard talk about the ownership of this forest again. Is the Governor’s proposed administrative Committee on Stubbs Creek Forests going to be superior to the Judicial Commissions headed by a renowned Judge of the Supreme Court?
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