By Tony Ita Etim - Uyo
Youths in Essien Udim Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, have accused the council Chairman, Mr. Nse Ntuen, of depriving them dividends of democracy.
The youths alleged that the chairman’s action might not be unconnected with their petitions against the council boss, accusing him of money laundering and alleged threats to the security and anti-graft agencies in the country.
Spokesman for the aggrieved Essien Udim Youth Forum, Mr. Uduak Alphonsus, realled that the cold war between the council chairman and youths started when the chairman prevented them from seeing the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, to seek empowerment, following palpable poverty and other anomalies said to be caused by maladministration in the area.
According to Alphonsus, they “were at loggerheads with the council boss for being their stumbling block from getting empowerment from the state government, also making Governor Godswill Akpabio to believing that, everything was well with the people”.
According to him, “The Governor in his benevolence has tried to reach out to the youths but unfortunately, the chairman is blocking him from getting to the youths making it look as if all is well with us.
“We understand that the governor had given so much money and empowerment projects to the youths but, he cornered them to himself and his cronies, and would not allow these things to get to the youths.
“So, we are aggrieved and it was at this juncture, that we sought for an audience with the governor through the State Security Service (SSS). While we were in a preliminary meeting with the security officials, he (Ntuen), who incidentally attended the meeting afterwards vowed, he would go extra miles to prevent us from seeing the governor. He rather used the occasion to absolve himself of money laundering stigmatization he was enmeshed in August this year, with Maryland State Police Department in the United States of America”.
When asked why they were prevented from seeing the governor, the spokesman for the youths however alleged that, the chairman may have had some skeletons in his cupboard, adding that he instead, mentioned some unverifiable names of contract beneficiaries in so that the governor would believe all was well in the area.
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