Akwa Ibom State government has raised the alarm that fraudulent land speculators are on the prowl around government-designated areas, disguising as land owners to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.

The commissioner for lands, Capt. Iniobong Ekong (rtd), told journalists in his office in Uyo, the state capital, that the land scammers perpetrate their illegal businesses around the government earmarked housing development sites in Uyo, Ibesikpo Asutan and other locations, and warned the public to beware.

The problem assumed a worrisome dimension when the scammers started accusing government of stealing and converting their lands without compensation.

But the commissioner, who described the allegation of land grabbing against Governor Umo Eno, as laughable, expressed dismay that the perpetrators, who are the real thieves had gone “to the extent that the owner of the property is now labeled as a thief.”

He said, “Before you can wriggle yourself out of the accusations it becomes a very herculean task,” adding that the need to set the record straight informed the parley with journalists “to educate our people on the issue of land and landed property and procedures, especially as they affect Uyo Capital City.”

“I want to let Akwa Ibom people know that the ultimate reason behind the creation of Uyo Capital City Development Area (UCCDA) by the former Governor Victor Attah, who did a very painstaking job of redesigning what was hitherto a local government area into what we now enjoy as the state capital.
“Prior to that, he took time to acquire lots of places, some he designated as commercial areas, some he designated industrial areas, some were housing estates, scattered in a manner that gave sanity to an emerging town in consonant with internationally accepted best practices of a well-laid out and planned metropolitan area.

“And that gave rise to Mbiabong Etoi, as a residential estate, property acquired and compensated for, Ikot Eto-Ebeto Residential Estate, gave rise to Nnung Ette, residential estate; they’re all on ground. Iba Oku Residential Estate, Uyo Village Road, and Afaha Uku Residential Estate that consists of various plots from ‘A’, and to ‘J’ that I am very well aware of.

“It also gave rise to commercial layouts like Atan Offot; Banking Layout that you have at Udoudoma up to and including where you have the breweries, up to Numg Oku, where you have the Science Parks; it gave rise to Employment Centre Area. These were properly acquired and compensated for, and the layouts are there.

“Allocations to these acquisitions were made from 2001 up to about 2007 and some in 2010, and people have been given official letters as owners of these areas be it commercial, residential, industrial and even mixed. Now what happened by the evolution of time and of course, with lack of infrastructure in these areas, it becomes very difficult for anybody to move in, especially with their families accompany with insecurity around us and the need for a clean livelihood; people have not really been able to go in to establish residences or commercial properties as the case may be.

“So, that gave rise to charlatans who jumped up to have groups and gangs calling themselves all kinds of names just to be able to acquire these lands not knowing that we are fully in possession of these lands by documents, by status and in practice and so they began to act as owners of the land that had been acquired by the government,” he said.