Gov Eno to build 18-floor Towers in Lagos amidst food crisis

Despite the food crisis in Akwa Ibom State, Governor Umo Eno said the state government is about to start building an “18-floor Ibom Towers” in Lagos State, south-west Nigeria.

Governor Eno disclosed this on Monday in Uyo, while performing the foundation laying ceremony for Ewet Luxury Gardens – an estate sited at the former Ewet timber market in the state capital.

Speaking at the ceremony, the governor said the contractor for the luxury estate in Uyo is also “playing a major role” in the planned 18-floor towers.

“We thank all of you for coming. We want the contractor to show us the strength. The test of the pudding, they say, is in the eating,” the governor said, charging the contractor to use the luxury estate in Uyo to convince him that it can handle the 18-floor Ibom Towers in Lagos.

“We are about to start an 18-floor tower called Ibom Towers in Lagos, and this contractor is playing a major role. So, I want to see your speed and quality. I cannot give you an 18th-floor storey building to do when you cannot do this something.

“So please, show us your strength here and let us know,” the governor said.

It is not clear why the Akwa Ibom State Government is embarking on such a project in Lagos when residents back home are facing a serious food crisis following the removal of the petrol subsidy by the federal government.

The governor’s spokesperson, Ekerete Udoh, did not respond to calls and text messages for comments on what the state government would use the Lagos building for when a quarter of its 21-storey building – Dakkada Towers – in Uyo is yet to be occupied.

When contacted, Ini Ememobong, the state commissioner for information, requested our reporter to send a text message saying he was about to board a flight. He did not, however, respond to our reporter’s enquiry at the time of filing this report.

Although the governor did not disclose the contractual cost of building the “Ibom Towers”, the announcement came seven years after residents of the state took to the streets to protest the building of a new governor’s lodge in Lagos State by his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel.

PREMIUM TIMES in August 2017 reported how the state’s residents defied pressure and threats from suspected state agents to protest against Mr Emmanuel’s plan to build a new lodge in Lagos where the state already had one.

The youths defied rainfall to march along the roads in the Uyo, the state capital.

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However, the protest did not dissuade Governor Emmanuel from completing the new lodge, which he claimed cost “a paltry N1.2 billion.”

The oil-rich Akwa Ibom State is Nigeria’s third largest economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product after Lagos and Rivers State.

However, the state parades one of the worst indices in terms of unemployment and poverty rates in the country.

To mitigate the effect of the skyrocketed prices of food items in the state, Mr Eno’s administration established a bulk purchase agency – a department that shares food items like garri, beans and rice to the vulnerable people in the state.