Govt Promises To Give Ibom Plaza Facelift To Boost Tourism 

By Bassey Nkponam
UYO
In furtherance of the tourism development drive of his administration, the Akwa Ibom governor has promised to give the popular Ibom Plaza in Uyo, a facelift.
Pastor Umo Eno, who made the promise, recently, when he stopped over to inspect facilities at the Plaza on his return from Nsit Ubium Local Government Area where he inaugurated the 14.28km Ikot Ubo – Odot Road and a model primary health centre, stated his administration’s plans to rehabilitate and upgrade the facility to its original plan as a world-class eco-tourism relaxation centre. 
Eno said the Plaza will be provided the necessary security facilities for security agencies who would be stationed permanently to ensure safety of the park, recalling that the facility was designed as a leisure park, but felt disappointed that it has been terribly abused, as it has been turned into a market place. 
He averred that if tourism must be promoted in Akwa Ibom, there was need to restore the Ibom Plaza to its original concept, pointing out that the Plaza was designed and built by the former governor, Arc. Victor Attah with an amphi-theatre where people could relax to watch series of entertaining activities on the big screen television set, pledging his administration’s resolve to restore all that for the people and rejuvenate tourism. 
According to him, ”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. 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.
“The concept of the facility was to be a walk-through park. This place links the Wellington Bassey Way to Aka Road, Abak Road, and other streets. The place was made to be 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.
“This Park, you would recall, was designed and built by Arc. 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 thanked the chairman of Uyo Capital City Development Authority (UCCDA), Mr. Anietie Eka, for clearing and sanitising the Park in readiness for its envisioned rehabilitation.