http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/feb/11/national-11-02-2010-02.htm

A’Ibom ex-commissioner arraigned for murder, kidnap
By IKENNA EMEWU
Thurday, February 11 , 2010


•Obong Victor Attah
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Akwa Ibom State Government has taken what many see as a decisive move against kidnappers and their sponsors with the recent arraignment of a former commissioner for an alleged involvement in the act.

The former commissioner for youths and sports, Chris Nyong Ekong was arraigned in an Uyo High Court this week for kidnap, conspiracy and murder. Ekong was later remanded in prison custody as ordered by the court till the next adjournment date.

The traditional rulers in the state had, a year ago, held a meeting where they cursed anybody that would be involved in kidnap in the state. Hence, the arraignment of Ekong is seen by many as God’s answer to the curse by the monarchs.

The case hanging on him is the murder of a certain Mathias, a man said to have been his ally while he was a commissioner in the administration of former Governor Victor Attah. However, the ex-commissioner has vehemently emphasized his innocence in the matter, insisting that he was in South Africa during the incident. But the police said he lied.

According to his international passport, police sources said, Ekong travelled on June 21, 2009 and arrived South Africa on June 22. Investigation showed that he spent the night of June 23 in South Africa and returned to Nigeria on June 24. It was learnt that when Martin, Mathias’ first son called Ekong on June 20 to report his father’s death, his phone rang out without answer. He was said to have picked a repeated call on June 21, 2009 to announce that he was in South Africa.

Apparently, Ekong, according to police sources had recruited some of the suspects, including late Mathias as informants during the regime of Obong Victor Attah but never paid them. Moreover, Mathias and his brother reportedly supplied sand at the building site of Uyo Stadium which Ekong supervised. Again, it was learnt that he never paid them. Itoro Williams, one of the suspects, confessed that he was paid N150,000 after the murder - a situation that raised suspicion, according to the police findings.

The police came to a conclusion, after an intensive investigation, that: “Dr Chris Ekong’s sudden disappearance on Saturday, June 20, 2009 and the suspicious N150,000 paid to Itoro Williams shortly after the assassination of the two brothers was questionable.”
The police also said they found, as contained in the suspects’ confessions that Ekong was the head of the Seadogs Confraternity in Akwa Ibom State, an allegation that the former commissioner strongly denied.

There have been sporadic cases of kidnapping in the state in recent times, a situation many saw as testing the will and capacity of Governor Godswill Akpabio to confront the evil and give his people assured security. The latest of the kidnappings include that of General Edet Akpan, the former Director-General of National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).
Akpan, a respected Ibibio elder, was abducted in his village while attending a church service. Two people died during the operation.

However, some politicians in the state have seen the attack from an ethnic angle. Their position was reflected in an advert signed by former Governor Victor Attah, former Junior Minister John Udoedehe; former military administrator of Rivers and Ogun States, Group Capt Sam Ewang, which alleged that prominent people from Ibibio extraction were being targeted.
But another prominent politician from the area who spoke with Daily Sun faulted the position, noting that “fanning embers of ethnicity would do nobody any good because Akpabio enjoys massive support from all the tribes.”

Findings from the state indicate that the governor had during a stakeholders meeting of prominent Akwa Ibom elders sworn to do everything possible to rid Akwa Ibom of kidnappers and their sponsors. He also spoke “against ethnic bigots who see everything in ethnic colour, simply because they want to divide the state for political gains”.

Akpabio was later commended by the participants at the meeting for refusing to be lured into an ethnic agenda by the opposition. Nsikak Eduaok, former Chief of Air Staff, who was part of the meeting described Akpabio as a “detribalised governor and urged all Akwa Ibom people to support him to check the increasing crime wave.”

The police came to a conclusion, after an intensive investigation, that: “Dr Chris Ekong’s sudden disappearance on Saturday, June 20, 2009 and the suspicious N150,000 paid to Itoro Williams shortly after the assassination of the two brothers was questionable.”
The police also said they found, as contained in the suspects’ confessions that Ekong was the head of the Seadogs Confraternity in Akwa Ibom State, an allegation that the former commissioner strongly denied.

@bolded.is that thesame as pyrates or a different cult?

Abagworo:


@bolded.is that thesame as pyrates or a different cult?

yeah Seadogs is AKA Pirates. But I tell you this case is Political, we all know that Chris Ekong is the Head of Seadog in Akwa Ibom and that he actually ordered for the assassination. The fact remains that he was Gov. Akpabio's as well as Fmr Gov Attah' s hatchet man. He started having problem when he had the intention of contesting the Gubernatorial come 2011, and Gov. Akpabio knowing about all his dirty dealings is now using it to full effect to put a final nail on his political ambition

too bad