Monday December 22, 2025
www.thenewsdesk.ng
By Patrick UMOSANG
The Ibeno Clan Council has rebuked the President of Eket People’s Union (EPU), Dr. Samuel Udonsak, describing his recent Congress address as a “recycled manifesto of grievance, soaked in historical distortion, a cry of a failed EPU leadership, ethnic chauvinism and reckless grandstanding capable of igniting conflict in the Eket axis.”
Reacting to Dr. Udonsak’s speech at the just-concluded 2025 EPU Annual Congress, the Secretary of the Ibeno Clan Council, Chief Udofia Okon Udofia, said the address was neither a call to peace nor development, but “a dangerous provocation dressed up as cultural advocacy.”
According to Chief Udofia, rather than rise to the moral responsibility of his position as an elder and sociocultural leader, Dr. Udonsak “opted for vanity, diatribe and thinly veiled hate speech,” deliberately targeting the Ibeno people and questioning their legitimate heritage.
“What was presented as a congress speech was, in reality, a rallying cry for hostility against neighbours at a time the State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno is painstakingly rebuilding trust and peace across Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
Chief Udofia stressed that Dr. Udonsak’s claims collapse under the weight of facts, law, geography and history, regardless of how loudly they are proclaimed.
According to him, “Peace is the language of the present, not the noise of the past. Dr. Udonsak’s address exposes a man stuck in yesterday, unwilling to accept the new realities of peace-building and inclusive governance under Governor Umo Eno,”.
He further faulted the EPU President for undermining recent peace efforts, particularly the courageous decision by the people of Esit Urua community to renounce violence and embrace coexistence after years of being used as a flashpoint in conflicts involving Ibeno.
“Instead of celebrating reconciliation, Dr. Udonsak chose to stockpile rhetorical fire and brimstone. This is not leadership; it is provocation,” Chief Udofia warned.
In a statement titled “Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve: The Facts Udonsak Cannot Erase,” the Ibeno Clan Council laid out what it described as incontrovertible facts regarding ownership of the disputed area.
“Let it be stated clearly, without equivocation or emotional blackmail: Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve belongs to Ibeno; geographically, historically and legally,” the statement declared.
The Council dismissed attempts to rely on selective interpretations of colonial ordinances, noting that the 1930 Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve Ordinance was purely an administrative conservation instrument and not a land acquisition document.
“Geography did not move, rivers did not change course, and history did not take instructions from political ambition,” Chief Udofia said.
He accused Dr. Udonsak of intellectual dishonesty for allegedly weaponizing the 1918 Privy Council judgment, while ignoring its context and subsequent administrative realities.
“Ibeno existed then, exists now, and remains the rightful host community of Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve,” accusing the EPU President of crossing a dangerous line by persistently portraying Ibeno as intruders or impostors.
“Hate speech is not heritage. Dr. Udonsak has exposed himself as a chief instigator of ethnic hostility in Eket axis politics. This is not the language of justice, but of exclusion and bigotry,” and lamented what he described as the systematic indoctrination of Ekid youths with “fictional, exaggerated and incendiary narratives” designed to sustain perpetual conflict rather than foster development.
He said, “Conflict has yielded nothing but setbacks for all sides. Development cannot thrive in an atmosphere of manufactured enmity. Peace is not weakness; it is wisdom,” he added.
Addressing the leadership of the EPU directly, Chief Udofia advised Dr. Udonsak and his colleagues to “step aside with dignity” and allow a new generation to pursue dialogue, legality and coexistence.
“Ekid’s progress will not come from fighting neighbours but from working with them,” he said and concluded by warning that Akwa Ibom State does not need more ethnic drumbeats.
“What the state needs are bridges, not barricades; truth, not tirades; peace, not posturing saying, Dr. Udonsak had an opportunity to speak to the future, instead, he chose to quarrel with facts and history will not be kind to such choices.”
