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| L-R: Professor John Inyang and Eyo O. Ekpo Esq |
25 February 2020
Against the backdrop of the ongoing fisticuffs between the Government of Cross River State and the Nigerian Navy NN in respect of designated choice lands located in Calabar the ancient state capital city of the state, Eyo O. Ekpo a former Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice in the state has posted five ‘simple questions’ to the Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Professor John Inyang.
These posers bother on urban development master plan, land grab of Presbyterian Church’s and NPA Quarters property, water board estate, and Transcorp Hotels.
Ekpo articulates his posers thus:
‘1. Do we really have an urban development master plan that CRSG can honestly claim to be implementing? If so, can he make it publicly available?
‘2. If there is indeed such a plan, I would respectfully ask him to explain how it accommodates the massive residential development being undertaken by the Governor himself on land that is said to belong to the Presbyterian Church and why (assuming the Governor acquired the land legitimately) his Ministry gave approval (assuming also the Governor applied for it) for a residential development on what is supposed to be land reserved for education purposes? Is that not a distortion of the urban development masterplan the Commissioner holds so dear?
‘3. Again, if there is indeed such a masterplan, why would his Ministry create or allow to be created that place called Waterboard Estate WITHIN the premises of CRS Water Board Limited and give approval to various politicians, public officers and cronies to build houses AMONGST water works installations, probably a first anywhere in Nigeria and perhaps in the world? If the public purpose for which the land was acquired had expired, why did he not initiate the process of returning the land to its ancestral owners (as the Donald Duke Administration did with land no longer in use by the Nigerian Army at Ikot Ansa)? Why did he instead condone the brazen appropriation of the land in the State Water Board premised by well-connected favourites of Governor Ben Ayade?
‘4. Does the Commissioner realise that there is a building on Murtala Mohammed Highway known as Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel, CALABAR directly opposite the CRS GIA office, less than 300 metres in a straight line from Government House Calabar, with its top floor rooms overlooking the Governor’s Office Complex. Will the Commissioner also go after Transcorp Hilton?
‘5. Is the Commissioner aware of the monstrous property development along MCC Road at the site of the former NPA Quarters being undertaken at this moment by someone reputed to be extremely close to the Governor, indeed said to be the alter ego of His Excellency? Is he aware that this building has no setback at all from its perimeter fence? Does the CRS Development Masterplan permit buildings without setbacks? Did his Ministry grant approval for the buildings springing up so fast along MCC Road to be built without setbacks? Is this permitted by the State Urban Development Masterplan?’
