By Manfred Ekpe, Jnr., LL.B (Hons).

The Government of Umo Eno is fast sliding into humorous dishonour and is being stripped of its dignifying grandeur and the aura of reliability that once overshadowed it until recently. In the past few weeks Umo Eno’s Government has been exposed to be corrupt and lacks direction. Effective communication and public relations is a far cry. It seems to appear that the governor’s aides are not happy due to complained poor welfare, which possibly leaves room for quacks or miachief makers to be the governor’s advisers.

In the past one week the AKSG has been involved in the unenviable harvest of embarrasment which does not resemble the Umo Eno’s integrity in governance that we once appreciated.

One of the earliest show of a harvest of shame and misdirecton was the event sorrounsing Ibom Power Company. On 14/11/2024 the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Enobong Uwah, issued an embarrassing press statement sacking the MD of Ibom Power Company (IPC), Engr. Meyen Etukudo whose only sin is that he exposed the missing $80 Million grant to the IPC by the FG. He also exposed the alleged sabotage of electric power supply in the state by Savannah Energy— a company for which politically exposed persons (PEPs) are stakeholders. Engr Meyen had also exposed that since 2016 the AKSG have not paid any subvention to IPC despite budgetary allocations. While Akwa Ibomies were awaiting announcement of probe into these allegations, the patriotic public officer who gave the information was fired and dragged before a probe panel, apparently to intimidate and shut him up.

While the state was yet to recover from the shock of these revelations, THEMAIL NEWSPAPER came up with a. explosive story that Governor Umo Bassey Eno holds 30 million shares in Dakadda Global Palm Oil Ltd, a state owned company. It was also revealed in the news report that Millions of Naira in loan was taken by the last administration under Udom Emmanuel to fraudulently invest in the said shares for certain politically exposed persons (PEPs) including Umo Bassey Eno who served in that administration. To make matter worse, less than half of the loan is reported to have been employed toward buying the shares for these PEPs. What happens to the rest of the loan? Who is to pay this loan? It is Akwa Ibomites.

As if Akwa Ibomites are fools, or as if we are in the kindergaten, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong came out in a press statement to explain why Governor Umo Eno bought 30 million shares in the state owned Dakadda Global Palm Oil Ltd. The explanation is that the governor held the shares on trust for the Akwa Ibom State Government!

But the Honorable Commissioner fails to tell Akwa Ibomites which law allows individuals like Pastor Umo Eno to hold company shares in trust for the government. For the avoidance of doubt, let me explain that it is the law that only Government agencies established by law that have the capacity to hold company shares in trust for the government and such governmental agency must be so empowered by the law establishing it. In Akwa Ibom State it is the AKWA IBOM STATE INVSTMENT CORPORATION (AKICORP) that is saddled with the function and duty to hold company shares in trust for the Government.

Indeed the AKICORP establishment Law provides that one of the statutory functions of AKICORP is— _

“to carry on the business of an investment trust and holding company and control all the investment and securities of the State Government in various companies, Parastatals and other bodies.

Flowing from the foregoing, I hereby call on the Department of Legislative Affairs in the Governor’s Office A.K.A, the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly (AKHA) to commence investigation into the circumstances that led to the governor and other politically exposed persons to purport to hold shares in Dakkada Global Oil in trust for the State Government without any enabling law.