Usumutong/Ediba Close To War Again

While consistent efforts on the part of government and well meaning indigenes of Cross River State have been invested in ensuring that the intractable differences between the Bahumono communities of Usumutong and Ediba in Abi LGA do not give birth to a full blown communal clash, www.calitown.com can reveal that unless something is urgently done again, both communities may finally settle their differences through the gun and knife, in a matter of hours.

Sources on the ground say last Sunday’s skirmish on the piece of land that has been at the centre of this conflict may have consumed one person from Ediba while another returned to Ediba with an ear severed. “It is a source of worry that after the Obol Lopon of Ugep got both communities to sign a peace agreement, painful things have continued to happen and corpses are either surfacing here or there or people just go missing and they cannot be found”, as one source put it.

In the course of this investigation, www.calitown.com obtained gory pictures showing the state of affairs in the area. A few corpses in the pictures obtained had no heads and our source in the community revealed to us that, “these beheadings have been going on and it may be time for our own community to go in search of heads to replace ours that are missing”. It is a subtle declaration of war, www.calitown.com can say.

Government appears to be at a loss, trying to find a lasting solution to the carnage currently going on in the area. “They can sit in Calabar and collect security votes, while we kill each other. Instead of our sons who should put out this fire to do their job, they have left us to our fate and only God knows what will become of this place in a few days time”, a Chief in the area said. He went on to appeal to the neighbouring Yakurr communities to refuse “our people entry into their communities, those who are killing people carelessly should stay back and experience the problems they are creating and not run to Ugep. Infact Obol Ubi Ujong In ah should make good his earlier threat of sending Ediba and Usumutong indigenes back to their villages to face each other”, he concluded.