Governor Okowa Call To Weigh-in As Ekpan CLO’s Crisis Becomes Messier

Worried by the tension the Ekpan Community Liaison Officers, CLO’s issues is causing, the Chairman of Ekpan Development Committee, (EDC), Uvwie local Government Area of Delta State, Mr Stephen Omamuromu Akemu, has called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to intervene before the skirmishes snowball into a major crisis in the community.

This is coming few weeks after the Uvwie Traditional Leaders allegedly blacklisted and placed a curse on the Uvwie Local Government Vice Chairman, Mr. Daniel Ighedo and four others for allegedly exposing the office of HRM Emmanuel E. Sideso, Abe 1, JP OON, the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom and the traditional institutions to public ridicule.

In a Save Our Soul letter addressed to the  Governor, Mr. Akemu said that some persons in the community were fueling the crisis to perpetrate themselves in office.

Specifically, he blamed the current Vice Chairman of Uvwie Local Government, Hon Daniel Ighedo and the CLO of Nestoil company, Mr. NewYear iffie for the festering CLO crisis.

According to him, both Ighedo and Iffie whose tenure have since expired were behind brewing falsehood aimed at truncating his tenure as chairman of Ekpan Development Committee because of his stand against their intentions to influence their stay as Community Liaison Officers CLO’S to various Companies against the wish of Uvwie Kingdom.

The EDC Chairman, in the letter stated that the duo are ganging up against him after his decision to support the Traditional leadership in their quest to settle the lingering Community Liaison Officers stalemate.

He stressed that he did not see the justification in individuals laying hold to a Community Liaison Officer position in a company for over ten years against the wish of the community that placed them there.

Akemu maintained that the Community Liaison Officers issue is the exclusive business of the Traditional leadership of Uvwie Kingdom, adding that he was never part of the decision.

Mr Akemu disclosed that Mr ighedo and Mr Iffie are spreading false rumor that he is a member of All Progressives Congress,(APC) inorder to give him a bad name and discredit him before the Governor of Delta State.

According to him, he is not in any other political party except the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) under which he is currently a serving Member of the Land and WaterWays Security Committee, Delta state, PDP Ward 9 Assistant Secretary Uvwie Local Government Area as well as the National Youth Leader Delta Central DC23

He stated that his dealings with other politically exposed persons of any other party including the APC both within and outside the Ekpan community is no more than normal dealings that are apolitical in the exercise of his duty as EDC chairman, stressing that he has never received gifts of any kind in anticipation of switching his loyalty to any other political party as they have rumoured .

The EDC chairman further stated that Ekpan community has never in recent times enjoyed the kind of peace being enjoyed since they took over the reign of leadership in the community.

He urged the Governor to use some of his instruments within the local Government to ask residents of Ekpan Community how the town has faired since the Community leadership was saddled on his shoulders, adding that he has done his best to curtail criminality and gun running in Ekpan community.

Mr Akemu disclosed that Developers are coming back to Ekpan community because of the prevailing peace.

All efforts to reach the aforementioned persons proved abortive but recalled that while some of them had opposed the decision of the traditional council, others lobbied their friends in the government to overturn government earlier decision on tenure-ship to favour them in complete contempt for the government’s report, headed by  Chief Edwin Uzor (JP), former Special Adviser, to the Governor on Peace Building And Conflict Resolution.

The State government had through the office of Uzor declared that “the current community liaison officers (C.L.O) and community relations committee(CRC) members have served long enough and are given up till 30th September 2020 to wind up their activities and accordingly, vacate office on the date 30th September 2020. Within this period, the community should appoint replacement for them through the Unuevworo of the various quarter in consonance with the EDC chairman.”