By Emmanuel Unah
There is palpable tension in Abi Local Government Area of cross River State following threats and counter threats between the warring communities of Ebom and Usumutong who are both laying claim to the bodies of father and son beheaded over the weekend in the area.
The Clan head of Usumutong community, Chief Eka Eremi told our reporter on Wednesday that the two persons, who were beheaded are Usumutong sons and not Ebom as claimed by their Ebom neighbours and is a pretext to attack his community and burn down homes as was the case in November 2018.
“When the incident happened I called the divisional police officer on phone and told him to send down men but before policemen could get to the scene of gunshots the Ebom people quickly took away the bodies of our people they had beaded ad used the heads to run propaganda that we have beheaded their people which is not true”
He said the anger of Ebom people is that the Ebijakara people who were sent away by Ebom in 2005 are taking refuge in Usumutong and that they have threatened to attack his community and wipe away everybody like they did to Ebijakara before the week runs out.
“In November 2018, they attacked us in alliance with two other neighbouring communities and set ablaze the palace of our king and the home of Air Vice Marshall Osim and killed many of our sons and since then we have not reciprocated because all we need in the area is peace
“Ebom people have made Usumutong people their enemies and do not want to hear anything about us and all their plan is to attack us and send us away like they did to Ebijakara that is why we are calling on the government both federal and state to intervene and stop them from further attacking us”.
According to the chief, there is no land dispute between his community with Ebom but with Ediba another neighbouring community and the matter was settled out of court about thirty three years ago and some cases are still pending in the Supreme Court”.
“There is a lot a politics in the matter because the matter is not being fuly investigated before apportioning blame and called on security agencies to do diligent investigation into the matter.
The Cross River Police Command Public Relations Officer , DSP Irene Ugbo said the police is investigating the matter
