IBENO: SORROW, TEARS AND REAL BLOOD
Ibeno is my motherland. It is where my mother comes from and it is a beach resort with an ample amount of oil. It is a very beautiful land, where Mobil first found oil and where the huge Qua Iboe church first berthed. Its beaches are a pull for tourists and fun seekers from as far as Cameroun and the hinterland of Nigeria, and its fish is world renown. I woke up to very sad news this morning about my beautiful motherland. Its neighbours from Eket reportedly attacked the sleepy beach resort. The stories I have heard so far as I write this column remain horrendous, although some of them are yet to be verified from official sources. Scores have been reportedly killed, houses burnt and looted, and my people have been forced to abandon their homes, with a few fleeing by boats to find refuge in the sea. Further unconfirmed sources told me that the Governor, Mr. Umo Eno, has largely ignored the community as the carnage continued with unabated strength. My mother’s people are being killed, attacked and burnt simply because they have found themselves at the centre of a vicious resource control as a result of the vast oil resources on their historical land. This struggle is not new. In fact, it has been a recurrent decimal in relations between Ibeno and their neighbours Eket, and now Una. The siting of Mobil and other benefits that comes as a result of being a host community has always been the crux of the wahala which in most cases, ends up in this kind of violence. This time, a controversial “remapping” that was proposed or even done during the last administration of Emmanuel Udom seems to have triggered the new surge of violence. This remapping seems to have ceded some portion of Ibeno land to Eket while also bringing into the fore Una, the local government of the past governor. Of course, the Ibeno people have resisted leading to this attack that is reminiscent of past skirmishes that always ended with a bloody nose for my mother’s people. I also learnt that the Mobil’s exit and the arrival of Seplat is another strong touch point to this present wahala. Please, I’m calling on the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, the Commissioner of Police, the IG of police, the Chiefs of Naval Staff and Army to kindly step in to stop this carnage.