Cross River Women Leader Distances Self From Effi Community Protest

Women President of Effi Community in Okuni village, Ikom local government area of Cross River State, Chief Mrs. EKim Ejukwa, has distanced herself from Saturday’s protest led by a faction of women against the establishment of a white wood particles board production factory by Chinese businessmen in the community.

The women president made the clarification while speaking with LEADERSHIP in a telephone chat in Calabar, shortly after the protest by the group of Effi community women.

Chief Ejukwa averred that it was only a faction of the community women who participated in the protest, stressing that herself and other women who were opposed to the protest, refused to participate in the protest given the fact that laid down rules were never followed before calling them out for protest.

Speaking in ‘Pidgin English’, the female traditional ruler said, “why would I join them to protest when I don’t have proper information about the protest? They just wore black clothes and came to my my house, I am not involved,” she maintained.

The women president stated that she returned from a church programme on Saturday only to find a group of women dressed in black attires gathered at her residence, making attempt to convince her to join the protest but she declined because she was not informed from the time the plan was hatched.

“I am not part of them because they didn’t respect me like a chief,” she stressed.

When asked to explain if she participated in signing of an agreement that authorised the Chinese nationals to do business in Effi community, the women president answered in the affirmative.

Recall that there have been a series of petitions written by conservationists who are opposing the establishment of white wood particles board processing factory in the community.

The development led to visitation to the community by State’s Forestry Commission to ascertain if really the Chinese factory was set up in the forest or not.

But the forestry commission chairman, Dr. George Obene’chi, discovered that the factory is in the heart of the community and not in the forest as earlier alledged.

Again, lawmakers of the State House of Assembly led by the member representing Obubra II state constituency, Hon. Egbe Abeng, earlier this month, also visited the community to find out if there was a factory in the forest, but none was found in the forest.