Chief Okoi Obono-Obla who is a former presidential adviser and a social and human rights lawyer, has made an open call to the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari to direct the appropriate federal agencies to make sure that they name the newly established Federal Polytechnic, Ugep, Cross River State, after late Dr. Okoi Arikpo (SAN).
Chief Okoi Obono-Obla had made the call in a letter which had been sighted by Africa Daily News, New York and addressed to the president yesterday.
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In the letter, he had also stated that late Arikpo, who was born in 1916 and died 1995, had championed academic, pre-independence struggles, involved in international, legislative diplomacy against secession during the Nigerian civil war of the mid 60s and he had also occupied several high national political offices and featured in many of the constitutional conferences and represented the country at many international fora.
But Obono-Obla regretted that late Arikpo had not been recognized or honoured by the Federal government of Nigeria.
“This is even as Ministers in the First and Second Republics, during the Military interregnum, and Obasanjo’s regime have all been honoured by naming streets in Abuja and Lagos after them,” he said.
He said Dr. Arikpo had always been inexplicably left out of the rolls of honours in his country.
“The denial of late Dr. Okoi Arikpo (SAN) recognition by the Federal Government is undoubtedly an injustice that ought to be corrected.
“In the light of the above, I respectfully and humbly appeal to His Excellency to correct the injustice meted on late Dr. Okoi Arikpo (SAN) and graciously approve the naming of the Federal Polytechnic, Ugep, Cross River State, as Okoi Arikpo Federal Polytechnic, Ugep,” he pleaded.
