10 out of 18 Cross River LG chairmen live in Calabar – Residents

The loud complaints by members of the public about the unavailability of chairmen of the 18 Local Government Council in their headquarters have again resonated.

At least five early morning radio callers over Sparkling FM in Calabar have complained that no fewer than 10 chairmen of out of 18 are known to be residing in and work from the state capital, Calabar.

They made the call on Friday morning over a programme called Area Talk where members of the public are encouraged to phone in to report about issues in their neighbourhoods.

According to one Willie Ikoi, who called from Calabar, “There are at least ten council chairmen whom I know live in Calabar. They run their councils from Calabar. They only travel to their headquarters almost at their conveniences.”

“Even those whose Councils witness regular communal skirmishes, resulting in killings, those council chairmen only visit there once in a while to assess situations. They only mandate their aides to monitor developments for them”, he claimed.

A female caller,  Mrs Victoria Abang who said she hails from Boki LGA explained that many chairmen often ran the council from the boots of their cars due to inaccessibility of Boje, the headquarters, as well as lack of facilities in the remote area.

“The location of Trinidad, the Council headquarters isn’t conducive and deep into the remote neighbourhood.

“Most of the past chairmen never lived in Boje. But now there are offices yet most personnel work from outside the headquarters,” he said.

One caller said the State House of Assembly and Governor Bassey Otu should frown at the development.

“Only the mayor of Calabar Municipality is the only authorised council chairman authorised by law to live in Calabar.

“Other 10 council chairmen should be forced by law to live in their domains, not Calabar”, another female caller, Jennifer stressed.