Gov. Umo Eno
THE ARRIVAL OF IBENO TO IBIBIO LAND AND THE BIRTH OF LAND FRAUD
In 1701 war broke out in Andoni between the Àndoni king, Nna Biget and his kinsmen ( Enemugwem, 2009; 121). The war ended in 1708. During this period the Andonis, also called Obolo, who were defeated in that war escaped to Calabar and Ibibioland.
Their first settlement in Ibibio land was among the Onniong clan (now in ONNA LGA). The Ibibio of ONNA gave them Ikot Utip (bush of plenty utip trees) to settle. The newcomers corrupted the name to Okorotip. They planted their shrine and diety called Yok Obolo (now called Abasi Ibeno) at Ikot Utip. It was in 1881 that the Ibeno shrine was moved to Mkpanak for safety during the invasion of Ibeno by Jaja of Opobo on 11/4/1881 (Ememugwem 2007; 125 — 226). Sadly the Mkpanak falsely claim today that they originally kept Abasi Ibeno as ntippe Ibeno (origin of Ibeno).
Another set of Andoni refugees arrived Eket and were given a place to settle close to Stubbs’ Creek Forest (also called Akoiyak Ekid). The name Ibeno is derived from Ekid word “Ibono mo”, (meaning settle here. Enemugwem an Obolo historian agrees that Eket gave Ibeno its name. Thus in older colonial records Ibono is used not Ibeno which is corruption of the original word.
In 1919, Sir Jefferson, the administrator of Southern Nigeria (equivalent of today’s president of Nigeria), correctly cited Obolo as escapees from Bonny, Okrika seeking place to habour and were given land by the Ibibio of the coastal area. Obolo paid tributes (rents) to Ibibio for continuous stay in their land. This colonial report corresponded with Ibibio oral tradition. At the coming of Rev Samuel Bill founder of Qua Ibo Church at Ibeno in 1887, the Eket Chief that used to collect land rent from Ibeno on behalf of Eket was Chief Akpadia Edoho, village head of Afaha Eket — Talbot 1923: 282 — 288. Chief Edoho is the grandfather of a renowned professor of geology from Eket, Prof Emeritus Etie Ben Akpan who recently retired from theUniversity of Calabar.
All these historical facts on Ibeno can be found in pre-colonial reports including but not limited to— Talbot 1923: 282 —288, Keown 1912:33-34, Harry 1919, Falk 1928 (Notes on lines on which it was proposed to organize Native Administration in Calabar Province).
Today the Ibeno arise to lay claim to the entire Stubbs’ Creek Forest belonging to Eket and all the Onniong coastal villages, claiming to be their land and calling their Ibibio benefactors names, killing them in cold blood and talking all sorts of rubbish in the news media. They now claim Ibibioland has no access to the Atlantic Ocean and has no crude oil. Can you imagine the guts? Tenants trying to push the landlord out of his house?
All peoples now have to be wise against helping any people to settle on their land no matter the situation. It might not end well in future if you do.
100 YEARS TESTIMONY BY A BRITISH COLONIAL OFFICER ON HOW IBENO PAID A FINE TO EKID FOR REFUSING TO PAY GROUND RENT FOR SETTLING ON EKID LAND.
“Ibeno are as previously mentioned recent settlers in this part of the world, whither they are said to have fled from the persecution of the Bonny kings, about two hundred years ago.”
” On first taking up their abode amid the low lying lands by the mouth of the Kwa Ibom River, they seemed timid and gentle…whenever, for instance an Ibeno hunter killed an elephant—herds of which were and still are, fairly plentiful amid the marshlands near Stubbs Creek—the head chief of Afaha Eket, Edoho by name,used to send and demand the tusks.”
” At first the Ibeno submitted, but at length there came a day when they refused to give them up.”
Thither therefore went Edoho Afaha with a strong well-armed following and when the Ibeno came to trade as usual, he fell upon them, bound them and carried them captive to his town”.
After this he sent a messenger to the head chief of Ibeno saying, If you do not bring me the tusks you have collected, I will kill the people whom I have taken or sell them as slaves to a far -off tribe.
When they heard this the new-comers were very sad, and said :
“It is better to do as they demand than lose so many of our kin. So they brought the tusks and asked for their friends in return, but Edoho answered,
“‘First, I told you to bring the tusks only. Now that you have given me all this trouble, you must pay a fine as well. Therefore they paid that also and went back sadly to their town.'”
” So they paid tribute to the Eket people up to the time when Government came.”
Culled from:
P. A. Talbot, “Life in Southern Nigeria” (1923), Page 287.
NOTE: (1) Chief Edoho was the village head of Afaha Eket and paramount chief of Ekid, Chief Akpadia Edoho.
(2) “So they paid tribute to the Eket people up to the time when Government came”,
means that they stopped paying rent after establishment of colonial rule.
CHRONOLOGY OF HOW THE MISSION OF EVERY IBENO MAN IN GOVT IS TO DECIMATE THE IBIBIOS.
…Why an Ibeno man must not be allowed to hold Govt office related to land matters.
By Manfred Ekpe, Esq.
These facts are verifiable. Authorities are supplied.
Since the 1950s any Ibeno man in Govt seem to have one mission — to decimate the Ibibio by annexing Ibibioland for self-determination with their kindred outside Ibibioland. The details will shock you! Read!
(1) 1950— Obolo State Union wrote to the colonial govt asking for the creation of Obolo State (Obolo District) for the people of Ibeno and Eastern Obolo in Akwa Ibom State, and Andoni in Rivers State. The colonial govt refused to grant them on grounds that there was 36 miles(48 km) of Ibibioland separating Ibeno/Eastern Obolo from Andoni and that Ibibioland could not be used to create a state for them. (See Intelligence Report on Ibeno 1936 (to— 1952).
(2) 1953: An Ibeno man, Prof Eyo Ita, on the shoulders on the Ibibio became the first African premier (governor) of the Eastern Region.Within the few months he was in office, official records on Stubb’s Creek Forest Reserve were altered. Since 1930 Ekid people had always been paid Royalty in respect of the forest reserve as landowners. But by the time Eyo Ita left office Ibeno received a bulk of the payment! Today Ibeno fly those receipts of payment as evidence of landownership even when the Akpata Report of 1993 found those receipts as product of fraud.
3. 1972/78: Barr. Akpanika Mkpat Ukot was appointed Solicitor General of the defunct South Eastern State (latter Attorney General of the old Cross River State) by an Ibibio man in 1969. He was Brig Gen U. J. Esuene from Eket. Two years latter, Ukot drafted a Law cited as South Eastern State Development Administration Edict 1973 in which he annexed 10 coastal Ibibio fishing settlements to Ibeno — 6 on the Ekid side and 4 on the ONNA side. Esuene an Eket man and governor was a soldier hence Ukot as a lawyer misled him to sign the Law against his own people.
Eket people protested and called Esuene’s attention to the fraud. The 1973 Law was repealed.
4) 1978: Esuene’s Govt was overthrown in 1975. Barr. Ukot remained in Govt as Attorney General. Two years latter in 1978, Ukot drafted the Traditional Rulers Edict 1978 in which he annexed 12 Eket coastal villages in Stubb’s Creek and some coastal villages of ONNA into Ibeno clan. The 1993 Akpata Report found that the 1978 Edict was a fraud and that Ukot misled the Military Governor, a non-indegine to sign the fraud into Law and that it was an illegal Law that cannot stand. The Akpata Commission recommended that the 1978 Edict reenacted as AKS Traditional Rulers Edict 1990 be repealed. But Gov Akpan Isemin, an Ibibio, played politics with it not knowing he was helping the Ibeno decimate Ibibioland. That illegal law was finally repealed under Gov. Udom Emmanuel in 2021, 28 years after the Akpata recommendation! Oh Ibibio!!!!!
(5) 1989/90: Eket Traditional Rulers, against protests by aboriginal Ibeno people, and against good reasoning, made the same Barr Akpanika Mkpat Ukot the clan head of Ibeno clan. At the time, Ibeno was in Eket LGA. Two years latter in 1992, Ukot in his vantage position as clan head, declared war on Ibibio in furtherance of expansionist agenda. This war resulted in the setting up of the Justice Akpata Commission of Inquiry into the tribal disturbances in 1993. The Commission in its Report found that Chief Barr. Ukot instigated the war. I advise those interested to approach the State Ministry of Justice for certified True Copy of the Akpata Report.
6. 1999/2000: an Ibibio, Gov. Victor Attah appointed an Ibeno man, Pastor Okon Abang as commissioner for Lands, and another Ibeno man, Eshiet Okutinyang as Commissioner for Local Govt and Chieftaincy Affairs in what seems to appear as Ibeno strategic lobby to have those two strategic ministries. A few months into the administration, Okon Abang without the authorization of the governor forged a fraudulent state map in which he consolidated the 1978 Ukot’s fraud by reflecting therein that only Ibeno and Eastern Obolo lie on the Atlantic Coast. At the same time Eshiet Okutiyang issued certificates of recognition as village heads to Ibeno people who were not indigenes of those coastal villages so annexed under the fake map! Obong Attah signed those certificates without realizing what he was doing to Ibibioland.
7. 2001: Eshiet Okutinyang raised a subsidiary law supplement to the fraudulent AKS Traditional Rulers Edict 1990 in which more Ibibio coastal villages were illegally awarded to Ibeno and Eastern Obolo. Again it was under Gov Udom Emmanuel that this illegal subsidiary Law was repealed in 2021.
8. 2006: while the nation was in an election frenzy, the Ibeno people in govt were on the drawing board. They caused the drafting of Legal Notice No. 1 of 2006 under which more coastal Ibibio villages were awarded to Ibeno and Eastern Obolo. Under Gov. Godswill Akpabio this Law was repealed in 2008.
2020: Having successfully annexed the entire Ibibio coast, it was then ripe to use those stolen lands to further their inordinate 1950 quest for self-determination which had been in the store room for 70 years awaiting the right time . The Ibeno man in the Govt of Udom Emmanuel, Opolupm Etteh, then sponsored Obolo State Movement. They ingeniously misled and brought in some misguided Oro elements but whereas the mainstream Oro leadership’s agitation since the 1970s has always been to attain self-determination by looking eastwards toward Calabar- Odukpani-Akpabuyo-Oro- Atam for an independent state. Hence for the first time in history some Oro elements joined the Ibeno to look westward for self determination in a a state to comprise of Oro Nation-Ibeno-Eastern Obolo-Andoni, even when they know that that there is no geographical contiguity between Oro Nation and Ibeno. Ekid Nation subset of Ibibio is in-between them at the coast. Equally speaking, there is no contiguity between Ibeno and Eastern Obolo, nor between Eastern Obolo and Andoni, as there is 48 km interaction of Ibibioland of Onna, Mkpat Enin and Ikot Abasi, as observed in the 1936 Intelligence Report on Ibeno.
But whereas there is no impediment between Oro Nation and Cross River State. It is also suspicious that at the time the Oro-Ibeno illicit marriage occured, Senator Akon Eyakenyi the present deputy governor, an Oro woman, was in the Senate Such strange relationship between Oro Nation and Ibeno came to be— first time in world history. Senator Okon Eyakenyi also in July 2023 barely one month after inauguration as deputy governor presented a fake state map to the World Bank, which said fake map tended to support the Obolo State sentiment and in contempt of the State Map Law 2023.
2023: an Ibibio, Gov. Udom Emmanuel forced an Ibeno man, Opolupm Etteh on the Ibibio of Eket,Esit Eket and Onna as representing them in the House of Representatives despite several warnings by the Ekets that the man is anti Ibibio warlord. Opolopum Etteh was inaugurated as member House of Reps on June 13, 2023. The next day on June 14, he apparently used an Andoni man in the House to move motion challenging the map of Akwa Ibom State signed into Law by his Godfather, Udom Emmanuel and which said map recovered stolen Ibibio coastal lands from the Ibenos and Obolos. Opolupm also mobilized all the Ijaws in the Green Chamber to challenge the said map.
NOTE:
1. It can be noted that a common tread in the above adumbrated facts is that it is the Ibibios that always empower the Ibenos to mutilate Ibibio. Yet for 70 years the Ibibios cannot see this tread and threat.
2. The Ibibios have been so divided and nonchalant about what injures a section of the ethnic nation. The land issues in riverine Ibibio does not concern the hinterland Ibibio, but forgetting that should the riverine Ibibios lose their coastal lands for grabs by nieghbouring stranger ethnic group (as the Ibeno envisions), the entire Ibibio and Annang will lose as there’ll be no more petrodollars for state development. The Ibibio stakeholders suddenly forgot that the Ibibio State Union in 1927 arose to fight the Andoni, Opobo and Obolo who wanted to annex the 48 km Ibibio coastal land lying between Eastern Obolo and Andoni on the coast of Ikot Abasi (ref: please see the 1936 Intelligence Report on Ibeno which mentions that case). If our fathers did not do that for us how could we have surmounted this onslought today had the 48 km gone?
3. It is now left for the Ibibio elders, political leaders, statesmen and traditional leaders to decide whether it is safe to henceforth allow an Ibeno man to, in future hold any sensitive political office in Akwa Ibom State that affects land control or any matter related therewith.
THE GENUINE AND FAKE MAPS OF AKWA IBOM STATE: LIST OF COURT JUDGEMENTS FROM 1916 TO 2001 AFFIRMING IBIBIO OWNERSHIP OF THE ATLANTIC COAST.
To those who have Akwa Ibom State and Ibibios at heart, posted is the genuine and fake maps of Akwa Ibom State. This is the reasons there has been crisis about mapping.
The fake maps excludes Ikot Abasi, Mpat Enin, Onna, Eket and Esit Eket communities and currently LGAs from being littoral coastline LGA which we were from ancient times.
The court judgements below show the truth and the actual owners of the coastline as it is on ground in the genuine map LGA To LGA. Since the various court judgements, surface those using propaganda are in their bedrooms.
See judgements below:
Eket / Esit Eket (Ekid)
“The 1916 Supreme Court Judgment confirmed the ownership of the entire (Stubbs Creek) swamp land east of Qua Iboe River to Eket people. Indeed between 1914-1918 the Supreme Court siting in Calabar, the West African Court of Appeal (WACA) and the Privy Council in London had decided that the entire coastal Area from the creek known as Stubbs Creek and the sea extending from the mouth of Qua Iboe River Eastward along the sea shore to Child point (Okposo II) belongs to the Ekets, to wit: Esit Eket and Eket Local Government Areas.
“An Order/Law of the then Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly as amended in 1955 establishing Stubbs Creek’s Forest Reserve spanning from big town in Ibeno Local Government through Edo, Uquo, Akpautong, OdoroNkit, and Ntak Inyang communities in Esit Eket Local Government Area with a map duly delineated, described and surveyed with beacon stones at strategic locations by then Eastern Regional Government of Nigeria in 1929 fully established the owners of each section and village of the Stubbs Creek.
” In Suit No. HEK/108/2002 an Order of Court had expressly directed the Surveyor General of Akwa Ibom State to “produce map of Esit Eket Local Government Area and Akwa Ibom State locating the village Ine Akpautong in its proper position in Esit Eket Local Government Area”. Akwa Ibom State Government has only complied with this order by the just concluded mapping.
ONNA
“In the 1947 and 1948 cases the people of Onna obtained judgment in the Akata case (MO/48/1947 and MO/33a/1948) that established Akata as the natural outlet to the sea for ONNA people.
“The Cross River State Law No 9 of 1983 in Gazette No 33 at page A87 listed the villages of Ntafre, Iwud Ukpum, and Ine Ikwe amongs in Oniong and Nung Ndem clans; granting Oniong and Nung Ndem clans of Onna Local Government Area access to the sea.
MKPAT ENIN
“In the 1995 Judicial Commission of Inquiry Report into the Land dispute between Okoroette in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area then and Ikot Ekong, Ikot Akpaden, Ikot Obio Ndoho etc all in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, expressly recommended that the Local Government Boundaries Commission be advised to amend the boundary between Ikot Abasi and Mkpat Enin using the plan of the land in dispute in line with the West African Court of Appeal (WACA) judgment in suit nos. C/21/41 and C/8/43 (consolidated suites between the Ibibio versus Opobo and Andoni) accordingly, the eight villages of Okoroette, Amadaka, Elile, Kampa, Okoro Mbokho, Iko, Akpabom and Atabrikang II should thus be included in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area. Only in the just concluded mapping of the State has this order been complied with.
” The 1990 case (HET/23/77) and its subsequent Appeal (2001) Ndon Ibotio and Ibotio people won its right over Iko in respect of all Ikot Udobia Land granting them access to the sea.
IKOT ABASI
” In 1941, in the celebrated Down Bellow case, at the West African Court of Appeal (WACA) (C/8/1943) gave all the land, left bank of Imo River as far down to Opobo River to Qua Iboe River to Ibibios; which today are the people of Ete.
CONCLUSION
The above cited cases are the immutable authorities to buttress the fact that the Ibibio people are the aboriginal owners of the Atlantic Coast in Akwa Ibom State. These evidences are above the hyperbolic fictions and lies for self induced sense of satisfaction and propaganda of the Ibeno and Eastern Obolo people who came late to the present day Akwa Ibom State and enjoyed the benevolence of the Ibibios when they were granted land to settle.
How could all these pre-colonial cases decided by European judges be so wrong against the immutable fact that the Ibibios are the aboriginal owners of the Atlantic coast?
The Akwa Ibom State Map 2023 only reflects the reality on ground.
It has only been recently discovered by the Ibibio people that the mission of every Ibeno indigene in government is to eliminate Ibibio from the Atlantic coast to pave a way for them to use Ibibio coastal homeland for an independent state for themselves thus relegating Ibibio and Annangland to the hinterland as a poor, landlocked, non-oil producing state.
The map shown with the inscription “FAKE” is the purported map forged by Ibeno people in Govt without any legal backing which makes only Ibeno and Eastern Obolo to border the Atlantic Ocean, in furtherance of thier inordinate ambition.
The second map inscribed “GENUINE” is the lawfully enacted map of Akwa Ibom State signed into Law by former Governor Udom Emmanuel and which reflects the true position of each LGA on the coast.
BUA IS OCCUPYING OUR LAND ILLEGALLY JUST AS THE MINING OF ILMENITE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT
…Ekid Nation Warns
By Assam Abia
Ekid people has reiterated once again the illegality of BUA’s operation in the Stubbs Creek Forest, property of Ekid Nation.
Addressing the people recently, during the Annual Congress, the national president of Ekid People’s Union, EPU, Dr Samuel Udonsak persuaded the State Government to abide by the terms and conditions of the 1930 Stubbs Creek Reserve Ordinance that established the Reserve, known as Akoiyak, noting that it was not an acquisition.
“Therefore, if for any reason, the Forest Reserve or any part there of, is de-reserved, the reversionary interest is that of the Ekid people, its original owners by the 1918 Privy Court judgement”,
“There is no place in the constitution and our laws that allows a government to acquire land and convert it into private use. It should always be for public good. It is on this basis that we hold that BUA is occupying our land illegally just as the mining of Ilmenite on our land without our consent is also illegal”, Dr Udonsak stressed.
He reported to congress that throughout last year, Ibeno Local Government, through their agents and actors have continued to intimidate, kidnap, disposes Ekid people of their farms tools and fishing gears and even impose illegal taxes on the people living in Esit Urua and those doing their legitimate business in the Stubbs Creek.
“They have made life unbearable for our people. Congress must mandate the Union to take all legitimate means to free our people who have every right to live their life in peace and prosperity”, he demanded.
On the proposed Ibom Seaport, Dr Udonsak said the project has the potential to revolutionize the economy and life in Akwa Ibom State. He commended Government’s efforts in the pursuit of the Seaport project.
“We would like to report to Congress that if Okposo/Ine Akpautong is the preferred site for the Seaport by the private investors, then these are territories of the Southern Ibibios of Ekid; history, the 1918 judgements and the Akwa Ibom State Map confirm and lay credence to this”, he said, warning that no attempt therefore should be made, in any manner, to regard the area as the territory of Ibeno or Obollo, adding that it has never been their territory and it will never be.
On the Enactment of the Akwa Ibom State Traditional Rulers Law, with the Oku Ibom Ibibio, as the President General of the Supreme Council of Akwa Ibom Traditional Rulers, the Ekid people held that the law is fair and foresighted, revolutionary and well-intentioned. The Union congratulated the Governor, His Excellency Umo Eno for assenting to the law.
The Union commended the Governor on his conscious attempt to make government projects and appointments even.
“We urge his Excellency not to weaver, to remain focused, to be committed to the Arise Agenda, for the Ekid people are solidly behind him. The Union would continue to engage positively with all ranks of Government to the good and betterment of Ekid Nation and Akwa Ibom State at large”, he said.
It would be recalled that on the heels of the Enactment of the Akwa Ibom State Traditional Rulers Law, Ekid people as a subset of the Ibibios visited the Supreme Monarch, to pledge loyalty and rekindle the warm fellowship of Ibibio kits and kins.
The Congress had in attendance personalities from across Ibibio land, dignitaries from Ekid extraction, royal fathers, Youth groups, women groups, Government functionaries and representative of Ekid sons and daughters in the diaspora.
The keynote paper titled “Repositioning Ekid Nation in Contemporary Nigeria” was delivered by Professor Herbert Batta, Head of Department of Information And Media Studies, University of Uyo. An indigene of Ekid Nation.
