JOE EFFIONG, UYO
The family of the deputy speaker of Akwa Ibom StateHouse of Assembly, Mr Kufreabasi Edidem, has risen to exonerate their son of any xenophobic attack on non-natives of their community in Itu local government area of the state.
A section of the media had published stories suggesting that Edidem was using his position to witch-hunt some strangers by destroying their properties to grab their land.
But in a statement made available to Daily Sun in Uyo, the Okuku Edidem Ikotidem family said nothing can be farther from truth as the media attacks are only attempts to exploit the fact that one of their sons holds a sensitive public office and prominent position in the state “to sponsor sensational, poorly investigated media reports in order to achieve the obvious aim of twisting the family’s hands out of a just cause to claim and reclaim their rights.”
The statement signed by Archibong Ikot and Gideon Edidem Ikotidem, chairman and secretary, respectively, of the family, said that the deputy speaker, being the 20th of the 21 sons of their late father has no power to take any unilateral decision concerning the issue at hand, which is their family land.
The family said that “the case in question has been that of a palm oil plantation known as “Ekpene Ekpe owned and cultivated by our father, the late Okuku Ikotidem, until his death.”
“Upon his ageing days and subsequent death, and upon the growth of his children, who had their respective careers and life’s endeavours to chase, interlopers decided to make a venture out of the plantation by fraudulently selling out portions of the large space of land to unsuspecting buyers.
“Upon realising this fraud and land theft, some of the wives of the late Okuku Edidem Ikotidem, who were still alive, had risen to make efforts to reclaim the lands and stop further partitioning and selling of the land by those fraudsters.”
They explained that during attempts by the family to reclaim the stolen land, there were litigations, which began at the Customary Court of West Itam, Itu Division, and culminated in an appeal in Suit No. MIT/1A/2012 at the Magistrate Court, Itu, and were decided in their favour in 2018.
“Some of the illegal occupants of our family land had, despite the court verdict, refused to relinquish possession of the respective land spaces occupied by them and even refused to honour calls for negotiation by the family, hence, compelling us to return to the court to file processes to enforce the judgement.
“Whatever actions were taken that affected the occupants were those of the court officials in pursuance of the judgement and have nothing to do with the Akwa Ibom Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. KufreAbasi Edidem.
“The detractors and sponsors of those media sensations against our son are only displaying a defeatist character and merely holding on to stripes as straw in a drowning situation, as the family of the late Okuku Edidem will stop at nothing to reclaim their land and will only open room for negotiation with the illegal occupants as the spirit of their magnanimity leads.” The family said. ENDS