Ditto that Ifreke Nseowo who manages the www.connoisseurNG.com, a popular website and who also doubles as the Managing Editor of Community Pulse Newspapers had on the blog published a story of Prince Akpabio's rascality at a night club known as Play Terrace located along Aka road in Uyo sometimes in June. The story quite true and factual as it was went ahead to prove to doubting Thomases that indeed some of the Akpabio boys are beginning to allow the allure of power and money to get into their head.
Prince Akpabio at Play Terrace was not his first time on that date; his rascality was not even the first time. But what provoked the situation was the outright disregard for human values that Governor Akpabio's brother displayed with flagrant abuse of womanhood. The sensibilities of the women were abused and trampled upon. It reminded one of one of the dungeon movies that we watched way back in our secondary school days. Much as this commentary is not about prince Akpabio, it is also of a necessity that he be always referenced because it is not that simple to disengage retired captain Iniobong Ekong's action from that of the crown Prince of Ukana.
Obviously, one should not be cowed to believe that the action of Ini Ekong did not get the backing of Prince Akpabio. I will explain. Okay, offended by the publication that exposed the rude nature of Prince Akpabio, his assault on a female person (those who were there claimed Prince had attempted to rape his victim) and mentioning also in that publication that the said club were this incidence occurred, Play Terrace allegedly belongs to Akpabio's boy on security Captain Iniobong Ekong, rtd, Ekong had three months after the -publication rushed to the court and challenge the audacity of the blog to publish such a story and linked him to Play Terrace. Iniobong Ekong's anger stems from his belief that he is not the owner of the club, that he has no link whatever with the club, he has no office in the club and at the same time does not know anything about the club. Very good way of deceiving Akwa Ibomites and the good people that live in it thereof.
But before we proceed or we give both the blog and her manager a bad name for publishing such story, let me remind captain Ekong and his co travelers that because one is not the person that registered a property or institution does not in- anyway suggest that such person is not the owner of the property. What I mean is that because he (Iniobong Ekong) is not the one that registered that club if at all it has been registered does not mean he is not the owner.
Sometime ago while I held the position as the Editor-in-chief of Community Pulse Newspapers, my publisher, Mr. Uko Umoh, yes the man we know as Uko Biafra had handed me an invitation that captain Ekong desires an interview and that he has asked me to come with another colleague still from the tabloid to conduct the interview. I then sought to know what the interview will be all about in order to arm myself with the necessary tools for work and was informed that Ekong will tell me what he wants to speak about. I prepared the then Political Editor of the tabloid who is now the Weekend Editor, Paulinus Nta and we were- set for duty the next day. When I sought from my publisher how to locate Ekong, he informed me to go to the site where Ekong was. We were able to locate the site which has today become a finished product and one of the facilities in it is the Play Terrace. It was at the site that we saw Iniobong Ekong supervising the jobs that was done there.
He was heavily guarded by a team of security experts and a tall and hugely built military man. After the initial hicupps at the gate, we were face to face with the retired captain. We exchanged pleasantries and we sat down to talk. Quite inf-ormally, I threw the first salvo and congratulated him on the massive structure he was building, he responded in the affirmative and took over the discussion from us. He told us how he intends to change the phase of the state for good when he completes the building. He had categorically stated that the place was not going to be residential when my colleague Paulinus Nta asked if he will be living there. He opened up that Least Pay company will relocate to that point when he is done with the building, he also mentioned something about a little tourist attraction and site in the building and above all he stated that he intends to incorporate in it a relaxation spot. He spoke glowingly of how he intends to make that place one of the best and attempted comparing it to some good places in Dubai, Turkey, South Africa and some other parts of the world. One thing I remembered him saying was that it was not going to be for every kind of person but for the elitist class and that was after I had asked him how he intends to manage the crowd that will come for relaxation there when the place was fully put into use. Captain Ekong added that there will be nothing wrong with council chairmen, Assemblymen, aides of the Governor and other top shots coming to unwind there. But before he landed, I quickly added, what of Journalists? And he refused to answer causing all of us to laugh.
We thereafter began the interview which lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. In the process of the interview, a slim fellow walked in and demanded for more money for a section of the job in the building, the retired captain was not ready to give in after the young man made an explanation, captain engaged him in an argument to see if the youngman, obviously Yoruba because of his intonations will be able to defend himself and the cost of the materials he wanted. Not satisfied with the explanations, captain Ekong who later obliged the boy's request said directly to the boy, “When they say our people are fools, I am not included.”
While I had to go through this story was so that discerning minds will ask what captain Ekong was doing there if he has nothing to do with the club that the blog linked him to. Or is it that after building or causing the building or supervising the building to completion, Ekong sold it to another person? Alright, who owns Least Pay? Is the person captain Ekong or is he related to the retired captain, now, what is Least Pay doing there?
Back to play Terrace, if Captain Ekong is denying the ownership of the play more critical questions will arise for the captain to respond to. Has he ever visited the place either for one purpose or the other, has he ever clubbed there or does he own an office there? What actually is captain Ekong's position in the club? Is he just a marketer for the club?
If Captain Ekong has actually denied owning, knowing anything about the club, why did he querry some council chairmen why those ones have refused to come and register in the club, why did he also expressed a not happy mode with some Assemblymen who had not yet registered at the club. For the purposes of confidentiality and anonymity status which those ones prayed, I will not mention their names. Is he doing marketing for the club? Not less than two council chairmen informed me that they had to register with One Hundred thousand naira each at the club due to the pressure Ikwa Afang was putting on them. Please who is Ikwa Afang, is he Captain Ekong?
Is captain Ekong aware of the fact that when one wants to see most of his friends who patronizes Play Terrace, they quickly refer such persons to Itie Ikwa Afang ke Aka road, meaning Ikwa Afang's place at Aka road? Is the captain pretending not to be aware?
Now, even a commissioner in the state had when the story of Prince Akpabio and his escapades at Play Terrace resurfaced on the Sunday Edition of Community Pulse had after failing to reach Ifreke Nseowo who is the managing Editor of the paper called me on that fateful Sunday to find out if I could reach the Editor for him.
When I informed the Commissioner that Nseowo was in church and must have put his phone off in total obedience and submission to God, the Commissioner had informed me to ask the youngman to get to him, an assignment I kindly obliged. But the commissioner before hanging up had hinted me on why he actually wanted to speak with the Managing Editor of the paper. The Commissioner had said he had gotten wind of information that something happened at the place of Captain Ekong at Aka road and that was why he wanted to speak with Nseowo since the Editor had already reached out to some people to state their own side of the story, he had concluded that he had earlier reached out to Nseowo and with the publication on, the publication had embarrassed them.
The point here is that the Commissioner had acknowledged the ownership of the club to be Captain Ekong. Okay captain Ekong I learnt is of the opinion that the publication has caused embarrassment to him and all of that, that his church members, his boss and all of others are now viewing him as someone who is running a night club were women are sexually harassed and abused. While I will not really want to go into what I feel about the interpretation of the court in that matter for fear of prejudice, let me quickly add or remind captain Ekong that such argument to me does not really hold water, it does not stand. In law we say that we don't keep something on nothing and expects it to stand. The point is that there is no way in the Nigerian constitution that says that to run a night club is a sin or crime against the country. Before the idea of relaxation and tourism had occurred to Ekong, the ex-transition committee chairman of Nsit Ubium should have known that such action of Prince Ukpong Akpabio are one of the hazards of running an outfit of that nature. Besides the report did not say in part or state wholesale that Play Terrace is synonymous with the abuse of persons either man or woman.
The report on the connoisseur blog did not describe Captain Ekong in derogatory words. It only informed readers of where the incident took place and the efforts the managers of the club took to avoid Prince from over running his victim. I see no reason why captain Ekong should go ahead to mention that his church members are embarrassed at the report and all of that. That to me is a miserable way of gaining cheap pity. If he was that religious, he should not have enrolled in the military. He should not choose to watch Akpabio's back as his SA or PA on Security. That attempt to be seen as a religious person is mockingly funny.
Methinks Captain Ekong should do everything humanly possible to encourage the Governor, Godswill Akpabio to reverse the ban he earlier placed as a result of Prince action that June. Yes, the state Governor is said to have in a meeting advise his aides and commissioners and all council chairmen to stop forewith patronage of the said bar and or club after the unholistic display of craziness by Prince Akpabio. Captain Ekong or whoever is the owner of the club should come clean to state that patronage of the club dropped drastically after the riot act Akpabio read to his team. They should also tell the whole world that efforts by the owner of the club to persuade the Governor to change his mind or reverse that ban has fallen on deaf ears and the result is the attempt to attack the blog manager Ifreke Nseowo by instituting a legal action.
I feel rather than go after the blog manager; security should be beefed up in the club room so that people who are specialists in unruly behavior no matter how highly placed will be shown the way out. If this was done, the rash behavior of Prince Akpabio would have been curtailed sooner when it started.
I will however ask captain Ekong to answer these critical questions and mo before fanning himself of having gotten the best of the blog manager. But again, I wish to ask is internet material admissible in court?
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