Mbo crisis: Council boss, guber aspirant on warpath The crisis rocking Effiat community of Mbo local government area has taken a new turn as the Chairman of the Council Mr. Victor Antai has accused Messrs Asuquo Okpo and Eyo Okon Edet as masterminds of the crisis. Antai who refused to respond to questions from journalists on the issue, said he would only speak on the matter at a world press conference Okpo, a governorship aspirants from Mbo; and Edet, aka Eyo Suang, the proprietor of Skypoint Hotel, Oron, will be present so that, they won’t accuse him of speaking behind them. On why he wants the two men must be in attendance in the yet to be scheduled world press conference, Antai said “they are from Effiat community and I don’t want anybody to say ‘Victor Antai is afraid of me. He is talking at my back.’ According to him, “I want you to take the message to them that they should choose any venue of their choice in any part of the country and choose any date and time suitable to them. I will sponsor it. I am ready for it”. On whether he has reached out to the two affected Mbo indigenes, he responded; “that is why you the press people are here. I want you to take the message to them.” But in his reaction, Okpo dismissed Antai as joking with a serious issue and accused him of sponsoring the Mbo crisis in order to destroy his (Okpo) 2015 governorship ambition. Okpo said; “Have you ever seen a council chairman challenging his subjects to a world press conference before? So, tell him, I am superior to him in all ramifications not by might, but by the grace of God; that I don’t attend competitive press conference. The governorship hopeful who spoke on phone said “He is a local government chairman, if he has finished sponsoring some people to do what they have done, tell him to go and put them back. “It has nothing to do with world press conference. If he has finished using those boys to do that, tell him to go and fix it back, it is not my duty; it is not your duty, adding, “he contested election to be a local government chairman, so, tell him to go and fix those things back; he should not call press conference, press conference for what?” According to him, “If he knows as a local government chairman that some people have committed crimes, he should tell the police to arrest these people and prosecute them. Okpo accused Antai of chasing shadows saying “he is shying away from the real issue and pursuing all these things that don’t have meaning”, challenging, “if he thinks that Okpo has mismanaged whatever that had been given to him, he knows where to go to for those people to carry Okpo”. Said he, “So, if anybody has gone to cause trouble and burn down any house, he should call the police and arrest them. He is the law officer of the local government, is he not? So doesn’t he know those boys? Is he saying that he doesn’t know them? Continuing Okpo averred, “if you have committed criminal offense, you would be picked up. Let the local government chairman go and carry police and pick those boys. He should stop mentioning Okpo and Eyo. “What has Okpo and Eyo got to do with the issues? Except he is saying that those boys have not committed any crime and if they have not committed any crime, let him leave them. He shouldn’t mention my name, again,” he stated Speaking on his role in the crisis, he said; “I don’t have any role in the crisis. I am a lawyer, I know what it means to commit a crime and I know what action that you can take, if it becomes a criminal offense and you will be tried for it. I am challenging the local government chairman who knows these boys; who filmed them during the crisis to go and use police and pick them up and put them on trial. Then, those boys will make statements and say ‘it was Okpo that send us or it was because Okpo took our thing that was why we burn that house.’ When asked whether he took any oil company compensation fund meant for his Effiat community, Okpo, asserted; “please, let me lecture you a little beat. Take a trip to Mbo and find out what is going on there; and after, you take another trip to the oil companies and ask them; ‘Oil Company, they said that you gave three hundred Billions to Okpo and Okpo has eaten it,’ they will give you their own story and then, you go to the press and publish it.” Accusing Antai of working against the 2015 ambition of Oro nation Okpo maintained, “It is because I am going out to contest the governorship position that is the trouble of Victor. Of course! That is Victor’s work in Oro, is not something we will talk on phone. “Did you see him during the book launch (referring to a book launch of Oro Think Tank, titled: “Why Oro?” at R&R, Uyo). He would not be there because his duty is to attack anybody from Oro that is aspiring for the 2015 governorship. He believes that Okpo is a strong aspirant, and if he allows Okpo to go this way, trouble will come for him. “As far as Victor is concerned, Victor is frustrated. The governor (Akpabio) is struggling to make sure that the governorship seat moves to Eket senatorial district through his pronouncements, somebody from there is fighting against it because he wants to be deputy governor. The person he wants to deputize, may not contest the election, yet he (Antai) goes about trying to assassinate people’s character, and he is jumping up and down to be deputy governor to Umana Umana.” It would be recalled that some youths in Effiat community of Mbo LGA protested what they called “non-payment of monetary compensations to the community by oil companies operating in Effiat community penultimate week leading to setting ablaze several houses and about six persons feared dead. While accusing oil companies of not citing any development project in the area after several years of their oil exploration activities in the communities, the youths further accused Okpo of not representing the communities’ interest properly before the oil companies operating their communities.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 21:14:11 +0000
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