Gov Eno’s Plan To Boost Tourism In Akwa Ibom

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, says his administration will rehabilitate and upgrade the popular Ibom Plaza in Uyo, the State capital, to its original status

He made this known when he stopped over to inspect facilities at the Plaza on his way back from Nsit Ubium Local Government Area where he commissioned a model school and healthcare facility.

He said, “The concept of this facility was to be a walk-through park. This place links the Wellington Bassey Way to Aka Road, Abak Road, and other streets. It was a place where people could just stroll and have their leisure time. That was the original concept but quite unfortunately the facility has been terribly abused.

“We need to return this place to what it was originally meant to be. We evacuated the market people, and now we are about to start its beautification so that people could make use of it as it was envisioned.”

According to the Governor, the Plaza will be provided with the necessary security facilities for security agencies to be stationed there permanently to ensure the safety of the park.

“This Park was not built to be a market place. There is a section of it that was meant for that. So, if we must promote tourism in our State, we must restore this place to its original concept.

“This Park, you would recall, was designed and built by Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah. It has an amphi-theatre where people could relax to watch series of entertaining activities on the big screen television set. We are going to restore all that for our people and rejuvenate tourism,” he explained.

The Governor stated emphatically that “we cannot continue to abandon what our past heroes had built with impressive vision and concept, and be creating new ones. If you keep doing that, then you are not helping the system.

“We must adopt the global best practice of building our infrastructure and State on what had already been started by our past leaders to make our State stand out meaningfully.”

He particularly thanked the Chairman of the Uyo Capital City Development Authority, Hon. Anietie Eka for sanitising the park and getting it ready for renovation.