By Nsan Ndoma-Neji
Two youth leaders in Effi, Okuni community, Ikom local government area of Cross River State, Comrade Alobi Ndifon and comrade Ojong Oyongha, have charged Executive Director Rainforest Resources and Development Center (RRDC), Prince Odey Oyama, to tender payment evidence for N40m compensation money that he allegedly received from the Cross River State Government for superhighway on behalf of Effi community.
The duo gave the charge during an interactive session with our Correspondent in Calabar on Thursday.
Ndifon and Oyongha accused Oyama of lacking the moral justification to accuse Barr. Ichire Okim, (Effi community legal Adviser) of not being transparent.
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The duo asked Oyama not to talk anything relating to transparency as he himself is not transparent and accused him Prince Oyama of causing divisions within the community.
The two community youths urged Oyama to desist from spreading malicious propaganda against Barr. Okim, accusing Oyama of fanning the embers of division instead of unity in the community.
They averred that Oyama’s claim of a secret agreement between Barr. Okim and Chinese nationals has been described as “totally unfounded” and lacking evidence to back his claims.
They asked Oyama to produce evidence to back up his claims or retract his statements, saying that the allegations are damaging to Okim’s reputation.
They wonder why Prince Oyama, whom they alleged is Okim’s childhood friend should come up with spurious allegations against his friend.
The youths leader accused Oyama of prioritizing his selfish interests over the well-being of the community, causing harm to the community’s unity and progress.
They stated that Oyama’s actions are motivated by a desire to tarnish Kim’s hard earned reputation which he worked assiduously to achieve. They accused Oyama of advancing his personal interests, rather than working towards the betterment of the Olulumo community.
“We urged Prince Oyama, not to tarnish the good image which Okim the reputable legal practitioner had worked assiduously to earned.”
“We the people of Effi Community had investigated all the allegations levelled against Barr. Ichire Okim, we found out that all the allegations against Barr. Ichire Okim by Odey Oyama were false and not true.
“We also took time and investigated Prince Oyama’s activities and we discovered that Prince Oyama visited the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) seeking the revocation of Barr. Ichire Okim ‘s license so that Okim would cease to practice as a lawyer.
“In the course of our investigation we went round the community forest to ascertain the allegation that Barr Ichire had a secret agreement with the Chinese nationals to log wood in Olulumo Forest. Let me state categorically that the Chinese nationals are not doing any logging in Olulumo Forest. The only agreement the people of Effi are aware of is within the former Mikes wood premises of Effi.
“The negotiation of that agreement took four days in Effi Town hall and the meeting was well attended, particularly seeing the presence of white men.”
Effort to get Oyama’s react on the issue failed as text messages and telephone calls put across to him yielded no results as Oyama neither replied the text message nor returned the telephone call despite the fact that his telephone line rang severally.
