Tension In Uyo As Host Communities Vow To Stop Eagle’s Match

As the match between 2018 World Cup qualifier between Nigeria and Zambia, draw close, the youth of the two communities of Obio Etoi and Obio Ofot hosting the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, have reportedly threatened to disrupt the match.

Yesterday, about 200 of them with different placards alleged that despite the beautiful edifice, the youths in the communities were still unemployed. They also claimed that the Akwa Ibom state government has not constructed roads into the communities as the parties agreed before the stadium was built.

With placards carrying inscriptions such as, “the stadium is beautiful but the communities are suffering,” some of them, stressed that after five years of failed promises, they had decided to come out to alert the government of its earlier promises to the communities.

While talking with journalists, the youth leader of Obio Etoi village, Sunday Peters, who led the protesters said, “The company blocked all diversion ways to the community with their heavy equipment and machines, at a point, we had to sell our land to maintain the road. That is why we are crying to the state government and we will continue to cry until something is done.”

“All water from the stadium to the retention lake sometime overflows its bank, causing flooding and breeding mosquitoes to residents of the communities.”

Similarly, the village head of the Obio Etoi, Eteidung Ezekiel Inyang Ekott, said, “We want to let the state government know that the Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] entered between the host communities, Julius Berger and the state government has been breached.”

It remains to be seen how the government will handle the situation before it gets out of hand.

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