The Ibaka community in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom has accused the state government of neglect, saying the area has remained without any infrastructure for many years.
A spokesman for the community, Mr Okonkon Ukap, said that the community was lacking basic facilities and that it had yet to feel the impact of Gov. Godswill Akpabio’s government.
Ukap said that the residents were in dire need of educational and health facilities and that disease were ravaging the area, added that roads, water and other basic amenities were lacking in the area.
He said the road from Oron to Mbo in the council was in deplorable condition and had resulted in increase in the cost of transportation in the area.
“The road between Oron and Mbo is in bad condition and it has made life difficult in the area. Indeed, we have never been recognised by any government in this state,’’ he said.
Ukap also said that the free and compulsory education policy of the state government was not being implemented in the area, adding that the only secondary school in the area is owned by the community.
“We have been inviting the government to this area, but we have not succeeded. The government promised to take over the only community secondary school in Ibaka, but it has not done so. “Up till now, we are still suffering and paying our children’s school fees,’’ Ukap noted
He said that classrooms in the secondary school were often congested as every child of secondary school age had no other place to go than the community school.
“We have a health centre, which has been taken over by bush and there is no electricity. Our people travel to Oron to receive medical attention,’’ he added.
The community’s spokesman also said that fishermen among them were being regularly harassed by sea pirates and called for increased patrol of the waterways by security operatives.
He said that sea piracy and oil spillage were the other major challenges facing residents of the area.
The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Eunice Thomas, pleaded with communities that yet to benefit from the free and compulsory education of the present administration to be patient as their cases were being looked into.
Thomas said that the difficult terrain in Ibaka was responsible for the absence of facilities there and disclosed that there were plans to visit the areas to see what could be done to make them benefit from free and compulsory education policy.
