We’ll go naked! A’Ibom women vow to protest land encroachment by Govt

Some-residents-fleeing-the-communities

Akwa Ibom Women Vow to Protest Naked over Alleged Encroachment of Community Land by the State Govt.

Women of Enniong Offot, Offot clan in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State,Nigeria have threatened to embark on a naked street protest if the state government insisted on seizing their land. The women are also threatening to invoke the gods of the land.

The women who had recently embarked on a peaceful protest said ministry officials are fond of moving in and out of their community to allot and sell parcels of land to people, claiming that land in Eniong had been taken over by the state government.

Mr Patrick Edet,spokesperson for the community warned the ministry officials to stop trespassing on their land as the land's right of occupancy was not revoked in year 2000 as claimed by Ministry of Lands recently in a report published in newspapers.

In reaction to the protest, Obong Eno Akpan, Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Lands and Town Planning, said the expiration of the tenure of the government that acquired and paid compensation for the land did not mean the end of government. The state government also described as fraudulent and criminal, the re-occupation of land by former owners after collecting compensation.