The outgoing Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel has described the peace witnessed in his eight years administration as priceless and his greatest legacy as he exits office on Monday.
Recalled that before his administration which started in 2015, Akwa Ibom witnessed a very turbulent era in which insecurity reigned supreme with reported cases of kidnappings and killings.
Addressing journalists on Sunday evening in the banquet hall of the government house in what he termed a farewell parley with the media, Governor Emmanuel highlighted that the peace witnessed in his era is divine and beyond human comprehension.
” Even if you did not see anything I have done, God reigned in the affairs of our state with peace and we are also having a seamless transition from my administration to that of my successor.
“I thank every one of you who stood with us through this journey and implore you to extend the same support you gave me to my successor pastor Umo Eno ”
Governor Emmanuel decried the theft and vandalisation of equipment procured for the recently remodelled and upgraded hospitals in the state describing the act as senseless and wickedness.
” The giant generators we bought for surgical wards were vandalized, how can you carry out surgery on people without light, this is wickedness, the same way we got information of the vandalisation of electricity transformers in Ewet housing estate under rain throwing the areas into darkness and we have to replace it.
The governor further regretted that of the 450 electricity transformers procured at a time by his administration, about 1- disappeared without trace stressing that all these are acts which must stop if the state must move forward.
He specifically recalled with sadness the vandalisation of the multi-million Dollars coconut plantation in the Eastern obollo Council area of the state by aggrieved youths describing their actions as a big sabotage of the efforts by his administration to give the state another big revenue source outside Oil.
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” Unfortunately, the fruiting coconut plantation they destroyed had given jobs to some of their relations who are earning more than civil servants, their acclaimed anger was the mapping of the state but it is the government’s responsibility to do so in order to douse tension and crisis that bedevilled some local government areas in the state” He added.
Mr Emmanuel also warned against demarketing the state on social media through fake news stressing that such acts can drive away genuine investors who see the State as a fertile ground for investment.
According to him” It is sad to read that the MRO we commissioned yesterday at the International Airport in the presence of two former governors and many dignitaries was labelled photoshopping by an indigene of our state and I received calls from friends across the country that testified that they watched the event live on AIT, that MRO is just awaiting a free trade zone license to become fully operational and we are already receiving offers from investors who are interested in managing the facility “.
Governor Emmanuel who described the media parley as his last with Journalists as state governor jokingly promised to join the journalism profession once he hands over to the new administration.
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