Okon Bassey in Uyo
For peace to reign in the Akwa Ibom community, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has assumed responsibility to reconstruct a school destroyed a year ago over communal conflict.
The Comprehensive High School in the Okobo local government area of the state was destroyed over a year ago when two warring communities, Amamong and Okopedi of Okobo LGAs, clashed.
The school has produced high profile members in the society, including the current Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Barr. Joyce Odua and former Akwa Ibom House of Assembly Speaker and member, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Peter Linus.
Interim Administrator of the NDDC, Dr. Efiong Akwa, who is also an alumnus of the school, noted, “Almost one year after that unfortunate crisis, the children who attend that school have not been able to resume school. We cannot allow this to continue. We can’t deny these children the right to go to school.”
He recalled that the renowned institution was wrecked beyond rehabilitation when Amamong and Okopedi communities clashed last December.
“We have to start engaging communities with this kind of intervention. NDDC is here to work with our communities to build infrastructure and foster lasting peace.”
Already, the NDDC boss said an assessment team of engineers, led by the acting Director of Utilities, Infrastructural Development and Waterways of the Commission, Engr. Aniefiok Iniokut had submitted its report on rebuilding the school.
“We will build an ICT centre, a library, science laboratory, staff quarters, and an assembly hall,” he said.
Community leaders from Amamong and Okopedi communities who received the assessment team expressed joy over NDDC’s planned intervention, noting that it will bring lasting peace between the two communities.
“We have been having a serious misunderstanding over our boundary lines. But with the coming of NDDC, I am sure all of that will be a thing of the past,” the Okopedi youth leader, Ekpenyong Ekpenyong, said.
Chief Bassey Ikpadi from Amamong, also the school’s Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) chairman, also expressed his delight.
