5 die as C/River, Akwa Ibom youths clash over land

Five people were said to have been killed as hostility raged on between youths of Akwa Ibom State living in riverine village of Oku Iboku village and their counterparts in Inua Akpa and surrounding communities of Cross River State.

The hostility was said to have broken out few days ago when Oku Iboku farmers ‘encroached on’ Ikot Offiong and Inua Akpa lands to cultivate their lands, an act said to be the bane of their frequent violent face-offs in the past decades.

As at yesterday youths from both sides of the states blocked flow of vehicular traffic on the popular Itu bridge on the Calabar-Itu federal highway which is the natural boundary between the two states.

Witnesses said the armed youths became violent, smashing car windows and windscreens, sending road users and onlookers scampering for safety.

Mr Ekpenyong Effiom, an indigene of Inua Akpa village said by yesterday two of his cousins had been killed and three others from neighbouring communities, still in Cross River State were killed by the rampaging youths.

Speaking, one Mr Kingsley Etete Bassey from Oku Iboku alleged that some persons he believed came from Cross River communities had provoked them by attacking their young men on the Itu river while fishing in the night, and killed three.

As the communal hostility got out of hand, the Commissioner of police in Cross River State, Jimoh Ozi-Obeh and his counterpart in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Murtala Mani dispatched detachments of the force to quell the uprising but since they could not contain the armed youths, soldiers from 13 Brigade in Calabar were deployed.

Cross River Police PRO, Irene Ugbo denied that there were any deaths. “We have since deployed our men to the scene of the violence and they are effectively on the ground. There are no deaths as claimed.”