Boundary Crisis: Cross River And Ebonyi States Meet, Seek Lasting Solutions

The Governments of Cross River and Ebonyi states have agreed on new terms to fast-track the processes aimed at resolving recurring conflicts between communities located at the Cross River/Ebonyi interstate boundary.

This was contained in a communique issued at the end of a joint meeting of officials of both states on the challenges at the flash points along the Cross River/Ebonyi interstate boundary and the way forward held Tuesday at the Governor’s office in Calabar where both agreed to inaugurate the Governor’s committee as reconstituted on June 10, 2015.

“The National Boundary Commission and both states shall jointly initiate action on the resumption of the delineation of the Ebonyi/Cross River interstate boundary not later than Monday 27th February 2017,” reads the communique jointly signed by the Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ivara Esu and his Ebonyi state counterpart, Barrister Eric Igwe.

Both states agreed to communicate “separately”, their reports to the commission for concurrence and are to inaugurate the peace committees at the various levels.

The Police, Army and Civil Defence corps were encourage to patrol the flash points with the Police charged to commence investigations into reported criminal activities within the affected areas which are Ukelle in Yala local government of Cross River and Izzi local government in Ebonyi, Osopong 1 and 2 in Obubra local government of Cross River and Abakaliki and Izzi local governments in Ebonyi as well as Adadama in Abi local government area of Cross River and Amagu in Ikwo local government area of Ebonyi state.

Also, the terms of reference for the various peace committees as stipulated at the June 2015 meeting were adopted verbatim.

Earlier, Professor Esu in his remarks said the meeting was part of ongoing efforts to resolve the issues surrounding the conflicts; a situation he said is “totally unnecessary” as lives are often lost in very gruesome as well as barbaric manners and explained the reason for the meeting.

“It is a meeting that is supposed to let us know where we are at the moment and more or less chart the way forward. For instance, are there boundary issues that are involved? Is there a situation in which the boundaries have not been properly demarcated? If so, how far have we gone in the demarcation of such borders? And how can this process be accelerated?
Do we have vandalism that is just perpetrated by some vandals living in the areas? If so, how do we solve this problem? Do we have people struggling for farmland and other things? And if so, how do we solve this problem?”

However, he explained that; “At the meeting of the Governors, which will either take place at Abakaliki or here in Calabar, we will then distill all these issues and the Governors will take their executive authority to decide or approach National Boundary Commission to ensure that such boundary issues are concluded even if it is at the cost of the two governments, because at the end of the day, it is our own people who are suffering and we will like this suffering to end.

“If it is a case of inadequacy in terms of policing those borders, we will also know whether there will be need to have more police posts in those areas and so on and so forth.”

In a similar vein, his Ebonyi counterpart said he strongly believed that the meeting will move the peace process forward with a view to arriving at final settlements in the spirit of “give and take”.

Pointing out that; “Boundaries are made by Governments for administrative convenience and therefore not intended to bring enmity or hostility between border communities as witnessed sporadically in the recent past”, Igwe posited that; “We think that border and boundary issues are not matters that will consume lives of promising young men in our society.”

Furthermore, he called on all those participating in the peace process “Not to get tired of efforts geared towards finding lasting solutions of our boundary issues as this will go a long way in bringing peace and unity to the two states in particular and Nigeria in general.

“At this point in time, our nation we know is doing all it can to catch up with developed worlds and the importance of peace and neighborliness cannot be overemphasized for this is a vehicle and a veritable tool in stability and nation building. The time for us to emphasize those bonds that hold us together as one people has come.”

The meeting was attended by Service Commanders, legislators, traditional rulers and top government functionaries from both states.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
If you miss the earlier story of the crises, here is it
Ebonyi/Cross River communities clash: Disturbing posers over beheading of 3 persons

It was a New Year gift that the people of Azuofia-Edda community of Abakaliki Local Government Area in Ebonyi State never really bargained for. In fact, they are still trying to come to terms with the reality of an attack unleashed on them recently.

The attack allegedly perpetrated by the people of Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State left the people of Azuofia-Edda community reeling in shock due to the unprecedented level of destruction, including the alleged beheading of three persons.

A mini-bus torched during the invasion Vanguard was told that the attackers reportedly numbering 500 came from Ofomana, Ogwurude (Ekori), Ofonama, Okinbogha, Ogamana, Ovurokponu, Okpechi, Ofenagama, Eja and Ujitum communities, all in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State. The attack was said to have started by 4am with sporadic shootings from the hoodlums.

It was gathered that the attackers besieged Azuofia-Edda community with sophisticated weapons, including guns, machetes, axes, motorized saws and petrol. In the event, all the buildings, including duplexes, bungalows and even mud houses belonging to the affected community, were razed. Minikum settlement An eye-witness who did not want his name in print added: “With their motorised saws, they fell down and set ablaze all economic trees in the compounds they visited. They entered into farm stores, brought out 54 bags of rice (300kgs each) belonging to Mr. Okemini Mbam and his family worth millions of naira and set them ablaze.

They carted away harvested crops such as tubers of yam, cocoyam, okro, maize and beni-seed. They also killed goats, sheep and any chicken that came their way”. Vanguard further gathered that the attackers succeeded in setting ablaze all buildings in the three settlements of Ndieze, Izenyi and Minikum in Ophenna village which number over 40 compounds in Minikum settlement in Odageri village before security personnel arrived the scene. But perhaps more shocking was the claim that the attackers from Obubra allegedly beheaded three men: Amaga Origbo, Egwuatu Okemini Egede and Simeon Ede Igboke from these two villages and kidnapped three others presumed to be dead by now.

Those missing were identified as Ike Ewa, John Orogwu and Nweboh Ophoke Nweboh. The attack on the affected communities in Ebonyi State occurred after the people of Ovurokponu village in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State on January 10, 2017 accused the people of Azuofia-Edda community of Abakaliki LGA of allegedly beheading a commercial motorcyclist, one Isagha, in their village. According to sources, the deceased had gone to Nwida market in Edda community of Abakaliki on the fateful day and carried a female passenger. “They travelled about 30 kilometres, passing through villages, farmlands, rice swamps and forest areas around Ophenna area. The passenger narrated that while they were riding, they noticed that they were being followed from the market by another motorcycle carrying two men.

She said they didn’t know that they were being trailed until they stopped at a junction in Ophenna village where the other motorcycle speed past them and waited in the front. “They sensed danger yet failed to report their suspicion to anyone in Ophenna village. They zoomed off and passed the assailants on the way who kept trailing them; passing through the centre of Ophenna village.

It was when they got to the outskirt of the young man’s village of Ovurokponu, some kilometres away, that they were double-crossed. The woman reported that the assailants asked her to run away. She hid in the bush and watched them shoot the young man (Okada rider).

They asked her again to run when they noticed she was watching before beheading the young man. “As soon as the Ovurokponu people informed the people of Azuofia-Edda community of Abakaliki of what happened, the villagers reached out to them to broker peace.

They assured them that they had inquired from their youths using the traditionally stipulated means and were assured that no one from Azuofia-Edda community took part in the killing of the motorcyclist. They invited their elites in Abakaliki town who immediately reached out to the elite of the Obubra people in Calabar town, including Hon. Ernest Irek, former member of the House of Representatives and the Paramount Ruler of Obubra Local Government Area, HRH Chief Clement Obogha and others, and tried everything possible to get them to understand that the act was not carried out by anyone from the Abakaliki side but they insisted on avenging their son and warned that they were coming for war.” Vanguard investigations revealed that after several efforts by the elite from Abakaliki on January 12 to resolve the issue, the Obubra people assured their counterparts from the Abakaliki side that there would be no crisis and agreed to a meeting in Abakaliki town. But this was not to be.

A community member from the area said, “The Friday of the attack was the supposed day for the peace talk to hold. The elders from Azuofia- Edda of Abakaliki and their elite said their efforts to assure the Obubra people that they were innocent of the crime, including inviting them to a round table meeting was reflection that the people of Azuofia-Edda in Abakaliki are peace lovers. “Let it be noted that the only route accessible to the over seven villages of Obubra who came for the attack was through Azuofia-Edda community.

That is if the Abakaliki people had planned on attacking them as they alleged, they would have done so while they passed through their road every day to the Nwida market, the Abakaliki rice mill and the markets in Abakaliki, Enugu, Onitsha and indeed the rest of the country.

Handiwork of cultists “That the electricity being enjoyed in these Obubra villages was installed by the Abakaliki Local Government Council and the roads being used by these aggressive villages in Obubra were built by the Abakaliki local government council.

Both sides had lived in peace, inter-married, farmed together and attended each other’s festivals since 1984 that these Obubra villages last attacked the Abakaliki people. Therefore the nature of the killing suggests that it was the handiwork of cultists prominent around the Obubra area.

Yet another building damaged “Recall that in June 2015, one woman was beheaded in Ofomana village of Obubra and it was alleged that she was killed by an Ikwo man of Abakaliki. However, further investigation by security operatives showed that it was an Iyala man from Ogoja, Cross River State, a hired assassin who had since been arrested and is currently detained at the Zone 6 of the Nigeria Police Force in Calabar that committed the dastardly act.” Another eyewitness revealed that: “If not for the timely intervention of the security operatives that arrived the scene, the attackers would have succeeded with their devilish objective of annihilating the entire settlements in the villages of Azuofia-Edda community and indeed other villages in Edda community of Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.”

In statement by the youths of Azuofia-Edda community in Abakaliki LGA and signed by Obinna Udenwe, Leo Ekene Oketa and Chinedu Nwasum, the youths called for prompt intervention by the state government to avert a reprisal attacks on the part of the affected community in Ebonyi State. “It is only fair that the state and Federal governments should as a matter of urgency come to their rescue and help them rebuild their homes, and set up a judicial committee of inquiry to investigate the matter and curb future attacks.”

Addressing the people of Azu-ofia, Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi on Security, Dr. Kenneth Ugballa, pleaded with the two factions to maintain peace pending the outcome of the investigation on the matter. He called on the communities to sheathe their swords and embrace dialogue for peace to reign in the area, adding that it was not the culture of Ebonyi people to use human head for funeral rites and urged the people of Cross River state to allow police to investigate the crisis.

But in a counter-reaction, Hon. Ernest Irek, a former member of the House of Representatives from Cross River State, said the crisis was sparked by the beheading of an Okada man from Ogwurude village by the people of Ohenidah for the burial of one Chief Nwebonyi Chi whose burial rites was scheduled for last week in that village. Human heads for burial “Those villages are not in Abakaliki, they are farm settlements given by our fathers to the Izzi people to farm but they have built houses there now.

That land is known as Osopon Two and the people there vote, pay taxes and attend schools in Obubra which is Cross River State. Ebonyi don’t own land there. “The people beheaded a young man in cold blood for burial ritual and our people became angry. They did that last year when they killed a woman and her daughter. They turned our place to where they come to harvest heads when they need human heads for burial; that was why our youths said that must stop.” He said the youths first demanded that the people who harvested the human head should be brought out and handed over to the police but the Oheneidah people refused, prompting the reprisal attack. He, however, added that peace has since returned to the place.

Photo Update:
1. Cross River Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu (L) and his Ebonyi state counterpart, Barr. Eric Igwe (R) exchanging a communique shortly after a joint meeting of officials of both states on the challenges at the flashpoints along the Cross River/Ebonyi interstate boundary and the way forward in Calabar on Tuesday
2, 3, 4, etc. Properties destroyed