Residents fault lawmakers over C’River motion to halt cocoa estates allocation

Residents of Cross River State have faulted the position of member representing Etung state constituency in the state House of Assembly, Chris Njah Mbu-Ogar, that the state government should halt the allocation of Cocoa Estates by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Cocoa Control, Dr Oscar Ofuka.

The lawmaker had called on the state Assembly to stop Dr Ofuka from further allocation of cocoa plots in the state government cocoa estates to contractors, claiming that the administration of Governor Ben Ayade is winding to an end and as such, it will not be morally justified to further allocate farms to contractors given the fact that already existing  agreements and  allocations are still running.

This was just as a couple of residents have argued in favour of the call by the lawmaker.

Speaking on the issue, Dr Ofuka, explained that “My first statement is that I did not believe such statement came from a lawmaker representing the good people of Etung state constituency.

“However, having read the statement in the media, there is a need to set the record straight. First, that the Etung Cocoa Landlord Communities are the beneficiaries of the estate in question under the Professor Ben Ayade-led administration. Except for the few people who had been out to frustrate the good intention of the state governor, hehad been working tirelessly to end all crises in the cocoa sector in the state.”

Ofuka explained that further allocation of Cocoa Estate to contractors would help to clear  all the backlogs of arrears of rent/royalties owed the cocoa  landlord communities in Etung Local Government Area of the state.

He said with SMARTGOV platform introduced by the state government, money paid for cocoa plots would split into three parts, stressing that “49.5 percent goes into the bank account of  landlord communities, 40.5 percent goes to the Cross River State internal revenue service (IRS)’s account  whereas 10 percent goes to Department of Cocoa Development and Control’s account.”

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Ofuka stated that there was  nothing wrong with  the lawmakers extending their  invitation to him to give explanation before barring him from further allocation

Prior to Ofuka’s reaction, the social media space was  alive with reports of a motion of urgent  public importance drawing attention of the House to what the lawmaker described as unwholesome activities of the Special Adviser to governor Ben Ayade on Cocoa Development and Control.

A youth in Etung community who spoke in support of Ofuka, Samnuel Manyo faulted  the lawmaker’s claim, saying the proposed allocation would spell no  doom as claimed by the lawmaker, instead it would bring to an end the royalty issue that had spelt tension among the landlord communities.