Emmanuel Ufon
The age-long community boundary crisis between Ubet Okom group of villages and Mbente village in Nkari Clan within Ini local government area last week got to a messier crescendo with the killing of people and destruction of properties worth millions of naira.
Recalled, the remnant of Nkari people have just returned home from exile to rebuild their deserted community where houses were burnt down and innocent indigene lost their lives occasioned by the inter state crisis between them and Usaka Ukwu community in Ikwanu local government area of Abia State barley two years ago without any substantial measures by the government to nib in the bud such reoccurrence.
Two Killed in Nkari Boundary Crisis
Lending their voice to this pathetic reoccurrence, Ini people under an umbrella body, Peace and Unity Advocacy Foundation yesterday, send a Save Our Soul (SOS) message to the Akwa Ibom State Government through the office of the Deputy Governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi for a lasting solution to end the ongoing perennial crisis.
They called for the complete seizure of the disputed land fuelling the crisis and urged the government to convert the land to commercial farming or build Industries to avert further lost of innocent lives and properties.
In a release jointly signed by the Chancellor of the Foundation, Mkpisong Prince Ndaeyo Nyaudo Inuaeyen JP, the Director General, Pst. Michael Sampson, Jr. Director of Information Strategy, Engr Idara Akpanowo, Director of Community Affairs, Comrade Theophilus Ukpabio and the Patron, Pastor Henry Akpabio.
The group condemned the dastardly act as highly unacceptable, bemoaned that Mbente sons and daughters have been continuously subjected to wanton destruction, adding that looting of Houses in Ubet Okom Villages is highly barbaric and inhumane.
Consequently, the Peace Advocates called on relevant security agencies to immediately identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the heinous crimes in Nkari Kingdom, as well as their sponsors and further bring them to justice.
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Meanwhile, the Group has renewed its clarion call on the Government of Akwa Ibom State in line with the Security Management as embedded in the ARISE Agenda of His Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno, to fully wade into the matter, and investigate the root cause(s) of the crisis, and possibly proffer a permanent solution to the lingering problem that has bedeviled the community.
In a related development, the Foundation has also acknowledged the invaluable contributions of some key stakeholders in Nkari Clan in particular, and INI LGA at large, towards the maintenance of Law and Order in the community. Among whom are the Chairman, Transition Committee, INI LGA, Hon. Inibehe Umah, the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State, the Area Commander of Ikot Ekpene , DPO INI and all other Security agencies, the Paramount Ruler of INI and the NKARI Stakeholders Forum.
The group further commended the stakeholders for their respective mediational roles, and partnership with the Foundation to ensure that the peaceful co-existence is maintained within and around the borders of the Agrarian Community.
The group pledged to sustain and subsequently expand the coverage of their various Social and Educational Intervention Programmes in order to include more Youths and Widows across all the 10 villages in the Clan, while remaining imperturbably dedicated and committed to their Divine Mandate of Advocacy and Defense of Community peace.
The SOS letter brought to the awareness of Akwa Ibom State Government that the major road leading to the community is blocked and locked -up by the waring communities as the group pleaded for government and security operative to apprehend those cultist and perpetrators of the heineous crime for possible prosection and convene a stakeholders meeting of the people for possible resolution.
Furthermore the message noted that Nkari people have become endangered species including the Paramount Ruler of Ini Local Government Area, Edidem Udoette Edon who hails from Mbente one of the community in dispute, regretting that the spat of the frequent outbreak of communal crisis has become a recurring decimal in Nkari Clan of which forth night ago, precisely on Friday 5th April, 2024 the entire community was once again thrown into pandemonium occasioned by another episode of communal crisis with lost of two lives with properties worth millions of Naira dastardly destroyed.
