Details

This was the second town hall meeting in Cross River State in this legislative period, as KAS and NOSAD decided to give the newly elected Members enough time to settle down in office.

About 250 participants attended the town hall meeting, amongst whom were HRH Otu Fredaline Akandu, clergy men, ward Councilors, students and youth leaders, women groups, public servants, teachers, artisans, politicians as well as community based organizations and NGO leaders from the constituency. Hon. Itam Abang, one of the very few women in the parliament was quite happy to meet her constituents for the first time after elections.

She briefed the constituents on her performance in the House on the bills and motions she had sponsored or co-sponsored. Amongst them was the child rights protection bill and the establishment of an agency for the purpose. As chairman House Committee on Education she held several meetings with school administrators in the private and public schools to ascertain the challenges in the sector and possible ways forward. She mentioned her pledge during her campaign that a piece of land has been acquired for the establishment of ICT Centre to alleviate the sufferings of students from the area and other adjoining communities seeking admissions into tertiary institutions through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Computer Based Test (CBT), for which they travel over 200km to Abakaliki, Ebonyi State to write.

The participants were quite grateful and wished that more town hall meetings follow soon. They raised the issue of peace keeping in the area where Boki I community had fought Boki II community in 2010 because of land. They also wished that the Honorable would help them making sure roads in the area are constructed and schools renovated with having more teachers. Hon. Itam Abang answered that she had already lobbied in the parliament, that the state government had put most of these projects on the 2016 budgets, but she will still do more to alleviate the problems of her people.