The office of the Surveyor General of the Federation recently released the Certified True Copy( CTC) of the official map of Akwa Ibom State. The Certified True Copy, which was personally endorsed by the Surveyor General of the Federation himself, was released on the 16th, May, 2023, and has receipt No. 0099.
The release of the map comes on the heel of the denial by the State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, that there is no official map of Akwa Ibom State in existence. The Governor has in recent times variously insisted that his decision to produce a map before leaving office is because, according to him, the state has not had an official map since its creation over 36 years ago.
The Surveyor General of the Federation and the National Boundary Commission have recently been joined in a suit filed by the Obolo people of Akwa Ibom State at the Federal High Court in Uyo to prevent the Governor from carrying out the remapping of the state, especially as the Governor has only few days left in office. The Obolo people of Akwa Ibom State have expressed concerns about the real agenda of the Governor given the speed and seriousness with which the Governor is going about the rather troubling exercise. The Obolo people, who are from Mbo, Ibeno and Eastern Obolo, representing the three only coastal local government areas of Akwa Ibom State, believe that there is a sinister motive behind this extremely hurried exercise by the Governor.
In a bid to achieve his dream, the Governor has ignored all legal steps deployed by the people to ensure that their communities are not bastardized or their lands heartlessly annexed or ceded or even conscripted into Onna, Eket and EsitEket local government areas. To make matters worse, the social media has been awash with the said purported new map of Akwa Ibom State. The Governor has refused to obey all the lawful court orders and this does speak well for the incoming administration.
Apart from the three local government areas which have expressed apprehension over the purported remapping, the general mood of people in Akwa Ibom State, if measured, show a complete distrust of the Governor, as far as the issue of remapping is concerned, as it appears that the whole exercise is for the benefit of Onna local government area where the Governor hails from, and to accord them with the status of a coastal local government area.
