30 October 2019
Contrary to false information circulated Tuesday morning by media aides domiciled in the Office of the Governor of Cross River State, the state government did not intervene in the rahabilitation of St. Augustine Primary School, Ikot Omin, Calabar. Rather it was North West Petroleum who adopted the educational facility and renovated it.
The management of North West Petroleum had explained that they adopted the school as part of their corporate social responsibility to the community.
According to their website, it says 'As part of our CSR activities, we had identified St. Augustine Primary School, Ikot Omin, Calabar, Cross River State for adoption.
'In a matter of years, the school has been transformed from a rural primary school with a dearth of facilities into a modern learning centre.
'We built and commissioned a block of twelve (12) classrooms and a separate block of lavatories in the school. We went further by renovating three (3) blocks of six classrooms in the school with a borehole to provide potable water for the exclusive use of the school community. All these were complemented with a perimeter fence round the school compound.
An anonymous source who was involved in the intervention said: 'It was done by Northwest Petroleum & Gas Company FZE, a tank farm operator and crude marketer long before it built her first mega station.' Continuing the source noted that the information from the government media aides was 'a big fat lie. I have severally been involved in the interventions at that school by the company. I wonder why some 'adults' have no shame!'
Nevertheless, the Cross River State Government later in the day corroborated this information when she issued a corrigendum observing that 'in showcasing Governor Ayade’s intervention in over 300 schools in the state, we erroneously included the edifice at Government Primary School, Ikot Omin. The oversight is regretted.'
