Four houses have been razed, shops and properties destroyed while residents have fled their homes in Inua Eyet Ikot, Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and residence of Ikot Ekpo, village head of the community, has also been set ablaze, due to renewed fight over ownership of land.
It is not certain if any of the villagers may have lost their lives in the stampede of the sudden night attack, but most are moving out for fear of a repeat attack
Scores of the people who sustained injury currently receiving medical attention have been visited by the Police Area Commander for the area, ACP Belllo Melembus on the directive of the State Police Commissioner, Baba Azare
The people have become helpless as the nearby nursery school they would have taken refuge had been attacked according to a villager by the attackers.
Vice Chairman of Ibeno Local Government Area Pharmacist Ukpong Okon who spoke, said in January 2025, the people of Esit Eket and Eket had hoisted a flag warning Ibeno people to move out of the area.
According to him, “At 12a.m. some people of Eket and Esit Eket attacked Inua Eyet Ikot and wreaked havoc on the innocent people including women and children who were fast asleep setting not less than four buildings ablaze and leaving scores injured.
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Chairman of Ibeno Deaconess Glory Effiong who had hinted she was on her way out for conference of local government chairmen in Abuja revealed that it was the third time the people have been attacked and the area ransacked
She disclosed that as of the time she was speaking, about “four corpses of people killed in previous attacks had not yet been buried while one left in permanent disability was yet to recover “
The parcel of land in dispute according to the Chairman “has been the ancestral abode of Ibeno people, but I wonder why they are laying claims to the place now.”
A community leader Patrick Usenekong in charge of environmental sanitation in Ibeno said he was visiting the scene to see the extent of damage noting that the attack has been a repeated occurrence and that unless authorities take a decisive position, the situation may escalate to a full blown war in the near future
Others pointed accusing fingers on some high profile politicians and prominent individuals as sponsoring the crises
Those alleged were a former House of Representative member, former Chairman of Esit Eket local government , former governorship aspirant in one of the defunct parties and a former civil servant, who recently retired as Permanent Secretary in the State Civil Service.
Those named however refused phones calls to confirm their roles and reactions on the allegations.
Apart from the spokesperson for the group who replied with a message”can’t talk now” after a long while, others simply refused to pick calls or return the messages.
Oil rich communities of Ibeno, Eket and Esit Eket in the State had been embroiled in communal war for sometime but for the intervention of the Federal and State governments.
Recall that the people of Ibeno, Eket and Esit Eket local government areas known as Ekid nation have been enmeshed in crisis over ownership of Stubb Creek Forest located in Ibeno, which is now acquired by BUA Group for a refinery project and Landmark Beach Resort.
The latest crisis was the bloody attack in December 2024 where dozens of lives were lost and properties destroyed, with many victims hospitalized.
The leadership of Ekid People’s Union (Eket and Esit Eket) led by the president, Dr. Samuel Udonsak had issued a quit notice, warning the people of Ibeno to vacate their ancestral land or face the consequences.
Irked by the quit notice, a socio-cultural association of Ibeno under the aegis of Ulok Ulok Progressives Assembly, UUPA, rising from a consultative emergency meeting in Ukpenekang last Saturday, queried why a sovereign local government area created and gazetted by the federal government should be ordered to leave their present location by a sister local government area.
The group while raising the alarm had alleged that the purported quit notice was not actually targeted at Ibeno, but at the existing and intending investors coming into the local government by virtue of the abundant oil/gas and other natural resources.
The group in a communique signed by Enienwe Carlson Okwuoluo as its Mayor, Enienwe Nkaan Ikat, Secretary-General and Enienwe Ukot Ibono Enyina, Public Relations Officer and issued to journalists on Sunday, said the confrontational posture of their Eket neighbours to existing and intending investors posed a clear danger to scare dozens of oil/gas investors and allied businesses from the area.
The group noted that though it had been keeping quiet all the while, it would not hesitate to defend its people, the investors and residents of the area if they were pushed to the wall.
According to the communique, “So, by this notice, we are drawing both the federal and state governments’ attention to this looming crisis plotted by Ekid, which can escalate to disrupt oil production activities thereby causing national sabotage to the state and federal government in a season that everyone is harping on energy security.
“We have respect for the rule of law and will not want anybody to push us to carry arms thereby disrupting the peace being enjoyed in our area.
“In line with the Commissioner of Police (CP), Baba Azare’s directive to all youths to refrain from stoking crisis in oil bearing communities, we have also warned our youths accordingly to remain peaceful with the oil companies in Ibeno LGA.
“We call on the police and other security agencies in the State to wade into the looming violence with a view to nipping it in the bud, as well as to prosecute those perceived as economic saboteurs in Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas.
“We are for peace and we have openly welcomed and will continue to welcome all the oil and gas companies and other allied businesses to come and invest in Ibeno Local Government Area. But they cannot operate successfully under the atmosphere of tension created by our neighbours.
“We are therefore calling on them to sheathe their swords and respect the peace overtures of Governor Umo Eno, who had since appealed to all the warring factions to embrace peace as the matter is already awaiting determination in Court.
“We have been keeping quiet hoping the aggressors from Eket nation would see reason and refrain from scaring away investors through frequent attacks, killings, disruptions of our fishing businesses and dislocation of our people.
“But if we are pushed, we will not hesitate to defend ourselves, investors and even rally our Ijaw and Obolo kinsmen across the Niger-Delta region to fight our cause.
“We have been here since immemorial, and even if we had been here for only 10 years, it is within our constitutional rights to become free citizens.”
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