By Akpan David, Calabar
The Managing Director (MD) of Cross River Basin Development Authority, Engr. Bassey Edet Mkposong has disclosed that all illegal occupants of their lands as well as others belonging to the federal government in any parts of the country are going to be ejected very soon.
Mkposong confirmed that the federal government are presently taking inventory of all their lands and have begun to fence them all to stop further encroachment.
Mkposong spoke with journalists in Calabar following complaints by residents of Ikot Enebong community who sent a Save Our Soul (SOS) letter to the Cross River State Commissioner for Environment accusing Mkposong of deliberately excavating a pathway of 12 feet deep to form an artificial erosion gully calculated to cause havoc, heavy flooding and destruction of valuable properties as well as put their lives in grave danger in the community.
The MD said that he used Basin excavator to create “gap” to ensure that those who were encroaching into federal government land would realise that they were occupying the land illegally.
Mkposong said, “I won’t cede a square meter of the land to anybody because the federal government didn’t send me to do that. I have written to appropriate Government authority and they’re in the process of coming to eject them. So we’re just looking at each other, none of them have any claims and they’ll lose.
“Right now, the federal government is taking inventory of all their lands in the whole of the federation and fencing them round. Thereafter, illegal occupants will be ejected. We have warned to go back to the people who sold them the lands.
Mkposong said that “The original landlords have also assured that they can’t sell Basin land and that they know it’s Basin land so anybody who’s selling Basin land is doing on their own and at their own peril”.
Mkposong threatened that he may have to involve the security agencies if they persist in confronting the Basin authority.
“I can only call government for them and Military and Police. They’re the one to break their houses not me so that I don’t take laws into my hands.”
