After 24 years of creation, Ika Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State with more than 50 villages is still wallowing in darkness owing basically to a lack of electricity supply in the area.
The area engulfed in a political crisis for more than three years that resulted in the loss of several lives and property worth millions of naira has a population census of 102,200 persons (as projected by the National Population Commission of Nigeria in 2016).
The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Uwemedimo Nwoko who brought the startling revelation to the new year thanksgiving service (Ika 2020) held at Qua Iboe Church, Ikot Akpan Anwa in the area on Sunday, attributed this to the activities of vandals.
Nwoko, in his goodwill message to the journalists in the church, lamented “There is no electricity in Ika. The state government awarded the contract for the provision of electricity in the area, yet it has been sabotaged. The electrical lines were to pass through Odoro Ika to other villages, but the lines were vandalised.”
The sober-looking Attorney-General who is an indigene of the area directed “I want the youths of Ika youths to rise to protect the electricity installations against vandals.
“There was a day I went to court and I saw a young in the dock said to have vandlised electrical installations in the area. I feel like killing him,” he pointed out.
The commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh congratulated journalists on the occasion and asked them to cast away differences in order to churn out balanced reporting.
Udoh said Governor Udom Emmanuel was prepared to focus on good governance as part of the #completion agenda of his administration and called on journalists to support the effort.
