Ekong Sampson: Ikot Akpa Ekop, Umo Eno wife’s village makes staggering revelations
By Samuel Udoma
A community in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area has made strong revelations about Rt Hon.(Barr.) Ekong Sampson’s famed strategic interventions, project legacies and bridge building in the council area.
The day was Sunday, the 27th of February, 2022. It was an epoch making day in Ikot Akpa Ekop, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area. Ikot Akpa Ekop is the hometown of Pastor (Mrs) Patience Eno, wife of the preferred PDP gubernatorial aspirant for Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno. Pastor Umo Eno had come to officially inform his Nnung Umodok in-laws of his gubernatorial ambition. It was a well attended event and the reception from hosts, Mkpat Enin, very superb.
Ikot Akpa Ekop is a community in Ikpa Ibom, one of biggest clans in Mkpat Enin. It is an oil rich, agrarian community, where oil was first discovered in Nigeria. Till date, cocked oil wells and ‘Christmas trees’ dot the length and breadth of the village.
Unfortunately, Ikot Akpa Ekop has not been so lucky in terms of physical development despite its key status in history. In fact, the only signs of government presence in the community were life touching projects given to them by one man, whom they have remained so grateful to ever since, Rt Hon.(Barr.) Ekong Sampson.
Dr. Sampson is a former Council Chairman, two-term Member of Assembly and a former State Exco Member. He is thoroughbred grassroots politician who has had his project imprints felt across the whole of Mkpat Enin. Little wonder then that the Ikot Akpa Ekop testimony about him was well applauded by the large crowd of supporters who came out to receive their in-law, Pastor Umo Eno and his entourage.
While reading his welcome address, spokesman for the Nnung Umodok Family in Ikot Akpa Ekop Village, Engr. Noble Akpan Sunday, declared that all they have in the community were given to them by Rt Hon.(Barr.) Ekong Sampson. He read:
‘Rt Hon.(Barr.) Ekong Sampson (who) provided us with pipe borne water, with a storage tank in place and constructed our primary school blocks’.
The six blocks classroom at Government Primary School, Ikot Akpa Ekop is the only standing structure in the school till date, the provision of the modern pipe borne water facility came with a generating set to power as well as gifting of palliatives and hygiene kits during the Covid lockdown to provide succour to the rural dwellers.
Apart from providing the community with these physical interventions, Dr Sampson has equally been in the forefront of advocacies to recognize the community as the first place where oil was first discovered in Nigeria, as against the wrong yet widely peddled, Oloibiri.
In fact, while he was in the House of Assembly, Barr. Sampson had pushed for the establishment of an Oil Museum in Ikot Akpa Ekop to further give recognition and credence to the community.
The Village Head of Ikot Akpa Ekop, Eteidung Friday Botton had declared in 2020 that ‘Barr. Ekong Sampson was an instrument of light for the community’. He made the statement during the handing over of the water facility and Covid materials.
It is important to note that the uniqueness of Dr Ekong Sampson’s project legacies in Mkpat Enin is the fact that they are always well spread across the four clans of the area. For Instance, Ikot Akpa Ekop is in Ikpa Ibom clan while Ekong Sampson hails from Ikpa Ikono.
The former two term Lawmaker is non clannish to a fault. He believes in the even and equitable distribution of developmental projects across Mkpat Enin. He wishes to see an evenly developed Mkpat Enin.
It is the mindset that saw Dr Sampson construct a health center in Ikot Inyang Okop, a far flung and nearly cut-off community in Ikpa Ibom clan, at a time that even his own community of Ikot Unya, in Ikpa Ikono did not have a health post. He would have simply carried the health center to his village, but he chose otherwise. That Health Center is still the only form of government presence in Ikot Inyang Okop till date.
All these have contributed immensely to the bridge building credentials of Dr Ekong Sampson, such that he has been nicknamed the ‘Political Junction’ of Mkpat Enin, because wherever you go to in Mkpat Enin, you will feel the impact of Dr Sampson.
These among others must have been the reason why the Mkpat Enin Traditional Rulers Council were so excited to endorse and anoint his Senate ambition. Dr Sampson was the one who increased the monthly stipends for royal fathers as well as donated cars and water facilities to all the four clan heads. The salary increment even got to town criers too.
It must have equally been the reason why all the PDP Ward Chairmen in Mkpat Enin endorsed Barr. Sampson. It was Barr Sampson who gave the land and championed the construction of the permanent Party Secretariat in Mkpat Enin, one of the firsts by a Local Government Council in the entire country. Barely weeks ago, he donated the sum of one million naira towards the party’s e-registration exercise in the area. Ekong Sampson is a core party man whom ward chairmen and party officers have had unhindered access to.
Noteworthy is to also mention that Ekong Sampson’s legacies in Mkpat Enin are trans generational. He has touched the lives of elders, women and youths alike. It would be recalled that late last year, the youth leadership strata of Mkpat Enin Local Government Area conferred on Dr Sampson ‘a Lifetime Achievement Award’. He is among the first recipients of such a honour. He has given employment to over two hundred youths in both public and private sectors.
In all, Dr Sampson’s life has been a testament to selfless service, embodiment of excellence and commitment to positive impacts and bridge building. He has always lived his life for everyone.
