TRAVEL ADVICE: If A’Ibom were unsafe, UK top officials won’t visit twice in one and half years- Gov Udom

The Governor Udom Emmanuel-led government of Akwa Ibom has frowned at the recent listing of the state, by the United Kingdom (UK), as one of the 20 states in Nigeria with high level of insecurity.

The UK government had advised it citizens not to travel to the state and 19 others including the Boko Haram-ravaged North East states and North West states plagued by banditry.

In its reaction, Akwa Ibom government faulted inclusion of the state in the list, maintaining that it remains one of the most peaceful, safe and secure places in Nigeria.

The state made this claim in a statement on Monday signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Emmanuel Ekuwem, and addressed to the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, H.E. Catriona Laing.

That Akwa Ibom is one of the most peaceful, safe and secure places in Nigeria, is an incontrovertible fact that prominent and critical stakeholders in the nation’s security, architecture and top business echelons and traditional rulers can attest to, Ekuwem said.

Giving reasons to buttress his claim, he said the US Ambassador, W. Stuart Symington, had visited the state on two occasions in the last one and a half years.

According to him, if the state was unsafe as claimed by the UK, no ambassador would visit it.

Ekuwem went further to say that the 2019 presidential, National Assembly, gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections, were adjudged by both local and foreign observers to be peaceful, credible and free in Akwa Ibom State.

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He also cited report by the commissioner of police in charge of the elections in Akwa Ibom State, Ibrahim Kaoje, supposedly telling the deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of the Department of Operations, that the elections in the state were conducted under a free, credible and most peaceful atmosphere.

“Even the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Jamil Sarham, and the Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger-Delta region, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman, had recently commended the peaceful nature of the state,” Ekuwem added.

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