By Efa Sunday
Peace is swiftly drifting apart in Abasi Obori Community of Calabar South Local Government Area, Cross River State as some youths are at logger heads with a Community leader over who becomes the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) for the Adam Duke/Abasi Obori Lane and Ravine project by NDDC.
The aggrieved youth’s alleged that the Community Leader, His Royal Highness Etiyin Akamba Maurice is imposing a CLO (Mr. Edem Nya Okon) not competent enough.
When contacted for clarification, the Community Leader- His Royal Highness Etiyin Akamba Maurice refuted all the allegations made against him referring to his accusers as “aggrieved, disgruntled and pessimistic fellows who do not like good things.”
According to him, “Over the years the Community was lagging behind in terms of basic social amenities, and it was based on this that series of letters were written from my office to NDDC before the first contract to repair the Adam Duke road and Ravine project was brought to this community last year.”
He further stated that before the commencement of the job, all the Village Elders were invited to his palace for a talk on the job, and a consensus reached by all to nominate the CLO, after which Nya’s name was forwarded to NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt through the Calabar Liaison Office.
HRH Etinyin also disclosed that the job was stopped midway for lack of funds and that it was the CLO who sourced for funds to assist the contractor to complete the job.
He also explained that “it was however the same contractor who handled the previous job that was brought to do the second phase of the job again, and the contractor specifically demanded to work with the same CLO since it was just a continuation of the former project.”
Mr. Emmanuel Archibong, leader of the aggrieved youths of Abasi Obor, accused the Community Leader of “been autocratic and wanting to forcefully impose on the entire community his Cousin (the CLO) to spearhead the second project brought into the Community”.
Mr. Archibong informed CrossRiverWatch that, the Liaison Officer (Nya) is a Civil Servant with the Ministry of Health, Oban, Akampka Local Government Area, stating that “the nature of his job won’t give him enough time to be present regularly in supervising the work been done by the Contractor. When the first contract was awarded, his absence led to the job been done shabbily.”
On his part, the CLO Mr. Edem Nya Okon out rightly debunked the allegations maintaining that he wasn’t “single-handedly picked by the Community Leader as it is claimed, but it was an appointment given to him by the Chiefs in Council with a letter attesting to the effect and my name forwarded to Port Harcourt for confirmation.”
He went on to say that his job as a Civil Servant cannot stop him from getting involved in community projects, saying that his office runs on shift and that availed him with much time to supervise the project.
He concluded by revealing that, “I’m a peaceful person and to resolve all these of course I won’t be working alone, I will be working with a seven man Committee and all aggrieved party will be considered.”
