No fewer than 2,000 displaced residents of Ndito Eka Iba, a coastal oil-bearing community in Ibeno local government Area of Akwa Ibom State have called on the federal and state governments for urgent assistance.
The appeal followed their forceful sack from the fishing community during the December 24, 2024 attack allegedly carried out by their Ekid neighbours.
Addressing newsmen in Ibeno at the weekend, the displaced persons, who converged at the palace of the Paramount Ruler of Ibeno, His Royal Majesty, Effiong Achianga lamented their ordeals.
They claimed that many people were killed during the violence, while properties estimated at about N3 billion were lost to inferno that engulfed the area with the whereabouts of several children still unknown.
They listed other properties set ablaze by the arsonists to include houses, motorcycles, cars, churches, school, health centre, boats with outboard engines, and fishing gears.
The displaced victims, who came out from their refuge to express their grievances, recalled that one of the residents identified as Mr. Monday was brutally killed with head chopped off, adding that the crisis started when the Ekid people renamed the Ndito Eka Iba village as Okoiyak Ekid to reflect their Ekid identity.
The displaced Village Head of Ndito Eka Iba, Esoidung Enyina Okon Enyina, who also expressed his concerns over the invasion, appealed to the Federal and State governments; the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporate organisations and well meaning Nigerians to come to their aid.
In the same vein, Chief Ekprikpo Uro and wife, Patience, solicited for government intervention to beef up security in the community for the displaced people to return and pick up their lives again.
“My house was razed with all my properties including; outboard engines and cash as I escaped into the bush through the back door to take refuge in the Church near the river bank, so that I could informed the people returning from fishing that our village is under attack”, Enyina stated.
His wife, Patience was also manhandled during the attack, saying she escaped with bruises to her sister’s place with only night wear.
“I borrowed this clothes to put on from my sister when I heard about this meeting”, calling for emergency measures from government to resettle them as the crisis had destroyed their means of livelihood of fishing and petty maritime businesses.
The Village’s Youth President, Comrade Okoriko Robert blamed the fracas on attempt by some aggressors from Ekid, especially one Aniedi, who along with others, came to Ndito Eka Iba village from Eket, to do fishing business but ended up dabbling into the village headship tussle by trying to run a parallel community administration in the village.
The Youth leader however said that the attacks by their Ekid neighbours often resulted in frequent confrontations leading to loss of lives and properties.
He warned of reprisal, noting that their peaceful dispositions were being misconstrued as weakness due to oil and gas investments by the federal and state governments in the area.
He, therefore, called on both the federal and state governments to wade in to avert carnage and disruption of oil production in Ibeno Local Government Area.
Secretary of Ibeno Clan Council, Mr Okon Udofia Okon blamed the attacks on former Governor Udom Emmanuel, who he alleged to have resorted to irregular demarcation of boundaries of LGAs around the oil – rich coastal communities.
Okon noted that the decision of former Governor Emmanuel ended up bringing more boundary crises following the dislocation of some villages from oil-bearing communities while ceding them to his Onna LGA, which was previously a non-producing area.
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