By Dennis Udoma

The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has opened a high-profile investigation into the ownership and collapse of multi-billion-naira companies established during the administration of former Governor Udom Emmanuel, including the controversial St. Gabriel Coconut Refinery in Mkpat Enin.

The move follows petitions, unpaid salary arrears running into seven months, and the shutdown of several projects touted as the state’s industrial revolution, many of which were sited in the former governor’s Awa Iman community in Onna.

Speaker Udeme Otong, responding to a motion by Mkpat Enin lawmaker Hon. Uwem Peter Imoh-Ita, constituted a joint committee on Agriculture, Labour, and Productivity to determine if the refinery is truly state-owned or a private venture.

The probe also covers defunct projects such as the flour mill, syringe manufacturing company, plywood factory, and the toothpick and pencil plants, which have all folded less than six months after Emmanuel left office in May 2023.

Lawmakers expressed outrage over the plight of workers, landowners’ uncompensated properties, and the government’s silence, vowing to get to the root of the ownership and financial management of the failed ventures.

It would be recalled that, 14 communities in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area constituting land owners for the Coconut Plantation and Oil Refinery Project in the area had been crying out for the payment of compensation amounting over N10 Billion throughout Ex-Governor Udom’s tenure but, all fell on deaf ears

The community had sued the Coconut Oil Refinery and State government at the High Court in Mkpat Enin Judicial Division and won, but the State government came behind trying to circumvent the landmark judgement in it’s favour.

Dissatisfied with the matter, Human Rights Lawyer, Jacob Brown Udobang and Co, had also petitioned the National Assembly Committee on Public Petition and is vigorously pursuing the case on behalf of the communities before the grand probe by the State’s Assembly.