Chairmen of Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Akwa Ibom State have defied state government’s directive for them to reside in the security villages in their council areas by choosing to live in Uyo, the state capital.
As a result, they have allowed the security villages built by the state government as residential quarters for top security personnel and senior officials in the 31 LGAs of the state to rot away.
The security villages were built to complement the “Housing for All” policy of former Governor Godswill Akpabio in his first term in office in line with the Local Government Administration Law.
The estates which are made up of several detached bungalows with sporting and recreational facilities were meant to accommodate council chairmen, secretaries, heads of personnel and heads of security agencies in each of the council headquarters.
However, findings have revealed that the multi-million naira security villages are rotting away as the local government chairmen prefer to live in the state capital and shuttle to work from there, and as such, miscreants have turned most of the estates to their havens.
The estates were partly established to reduce rural-urban drift and ensure that local government chairmen live in their headquarters to enable them have a grasp of the challenges of the council areas.
However, with the abandonment of the estates, the aim has been defeated.
Findings further revealed that the security village in Uyo has been converted into an orphanage, the one in Eket has been allotted as accommodation to the army, while no local government official lives in the one in Ikot Ekpene.
Findings also revealed that local government officials have refused to live in the estates because they are located in remote areas and as such unattractive for them to live in, while some prefer to live in their personal houses around the council headquarters.
Unfortunately, the situation has resulted in high level of absenteeism among the council officials, as many of them are not always available in their offices due to distance between the state capital and their places of work.
Although some people said the absence of key council officials in their offices had impacted negatively on service delivery and dampened the already low morale and productivity of councils’ staff, others argue that except for some of the estates that have been converted to other uses, the abandonment amounts to wastage of the state’s resources.
However, the Chairman of Mkpat Enin LGA, Mr Aniekpon Ekpo, who resides in the security village in his council, said many of his colleagues lived in Uyo due to logistics.
He said, “As for me, I am living in the security village of my LGA in Mkpat Enin, but sometimes, due to commitment and work exigency, I may be in Uyo probably on official engagement in the ministries with the commissioners or permanent secretaries on things that concern my local government.”
On his part, Chairman of Ini LGA, Mr Israel Idaisin, said the 100-unit housing estate in his domain had been leased to a private polytechnic so as to discourage miscreants from taking over the place, adding that key officials of the council area and other security chiefs also resided in the security village.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Committee on Local Governments in the House of Assembly, Hon Mark Esset, regretted that council chairmen refused to abide by the resolution of the assembly to reside in the LGAs.
Hon Esset said the sixth assembly passed a resolution, mandating local government council chiefs and other key officers to relocate to the security villages to be closer to the people.
He said his committee was planning to embark on a quarterly visit to councils to ascertain performance and state of the security villages across the state to check defaulters.
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