- 5,000 residents of Cross River community recount their communal clash ordeal
From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
she sat down under a tree and continued to look into space. She must have been in that position for a long time. Although she was there physically, her mind seems to be very far away from reality.
And who can blame her? Mama Okpata Obok has only recently lost her first of three sons to the communal clash between Wanihem and Wanikade communities of Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State.
She is among over 5,000 residents of Wanihem community including women and children, who were displaced by the crisis and are currently taking refuge at the border villages of Oju Local Government Area of Benue State.
Asked what really led to their displacement from their ancestral home, some of the victims including Benjamin Lukpala and Celestine Odu and Mama Obok all from Wanihem community of Yala LGA disclosed that youths from Wanikade invaded their community, heavily armed with sophisticated weapons and chanting war songs while killing, maiming and destroying property.
They revealed that there was actually a land dispute between the two warring communities, which was already being handled by the traditional rulers of the affected communities, but they were surprised when the issue assumed a disastrous dimension.
“Suddenly, the Wanikade youths invaded our community, killed many people, injured others and destroyed our houses, farmlands and even razed the School of Health Technology in our community thus forcing us to flee our community,” she said.
The 67-year-old Mama Obok while speaking with Sunday Sun lamented that her first son, who was married with four children, was hacked to death during the clash.
She said her other children managed to whisk her and other members of the family to safety two weeks ago while the crisis between the warring communities raged on.
Amid sobbing, she further said: “The Wanikade people came and attacked our community and my first son, Emmanuel, was one of the youths from our community who tried to defend us in that crisis. He died at the battle field after being shot several times in his stomach. He lost so much blood and went into coma until he passed out that night about two weeks ago.”
The deadly clash which occurred between the two communities was said to have claimed several lives and caused loss of property estimated in millions and led to the displacement of thousands.
Also recounting her experience, Gladys Lom, a 35-year-old mother of two children, who lost her husband to the crisis, enthused that life would never be the same again for her and her two children with the death of her husband.
Gladys said: “The attackers came to our house on June 29 and hacked my husband to death because he refused to hand over his farmland to them. They (referring to the attackers) killed him, destroyed our home and now I have nowhere to return to.”
Similarly, Olem Mary, a student of Health Science at the Cross River State School of Health Technology, is still agonizing over the loss of her credentials to the mayhem. According to her, she had kept her credentials in a box in her room but unfortunately for her, the house she was occupying was completely razed by the attackers and her certificates were not spared by the raging fire which consumed her abode.
Another displaced mother of four, Mrs. Obok Antonia, who lost her mother’s house at Wanihem-Idah to the crisis intimated that she managed to escape with her children on foot through bush paths and trekked for many hours before they arrived Adudu-Owo in Oju Local Government Area.
“We kept hearing gunshots as we were escaping through bush paths to a safer haven. In fact, at a point, my children became very tired and I almost got discouraged to continue with the journey but I thought of what would become of us if I relented.
“We lost everything to the crisis but we are lucky to be alive. Although my mother’s house is gone, I am thankful to God that my husband and children are alive to tell the story. I just pray that the crisis is quickly resolved so that we can go back home and begin the process of rebuilding our ruined community.”
Antonia however commended the Oju people for receiving them warmly since their displacement stressing that, “people here have treated us well.”
She added: “Initially, they accommodated us in their houses and provided us with food until our numbers kept growing and outweighed their provisions. Then, some of us had to sleep outside with no food and at the mercy of mosquitoes.”
Mrs. Victoria Usili, who lost two of her relatives as well as three houses belonging to her family to the clash, described her experience as very harrowing and traumatic.
“It was a harrowing and traumatic experience for me. I lost two relatives and watched three of my family houses go up in flames as the attackers set them ablaze with all our belongings inside. We trekked several hours on bush paths with our little kids in order to secure our lives,” Usili said.
Others such as Matthew Ugbam, a farmer; John Francis, a mechanic, and Tina Abraham, who lost one thing or the other to the crisis recounted their ordeals during the tortuous period.
While they all lamented that they had been at the camp for over two weeks, they expressed willingness to go back home as soon as the matter is resolved so that they can quickly resume their normal lives.
“We ran away from war and are thankful to God for sparing our lives but this crisis has left an indelible mark on us. So many people were killed just as we lost our shops, farmland and houses. Indeed, war is not a good thing at all,” Ugbam told Sunday Sun.
In his narration, spokesman of the displaced people and Camp Leader, Ogar Celestine, put the initial figure of the displaced persons spread across five different locations in Oju at a little over 5,000.
He, however, noted that the number had greatly reduced as many of the people had returned to their homes when normalcy gradually began to take root in the warring communities.
“Some of those who fled to the Igede-speaking villages of Oju have started returning to their homes in Cross River, thereby reducing the numbers of people taking refuge at the camp from 5,000 to about 2,000 now (at the time of our visit).”
Ogar explained further that most of those who were still camping in Oju were those who lost their buildings and have no shelter nor a place to call home again.
While appreciating the Oju communities for treating them with great dignity and hospitality, the camp leader however maintained that the IDPs were still in need of assistance in the areas of food, water, beddings, toilet facilities and medical attention.
Speaking on the development, Chairman of Oju Local Government Area, Hon. Augustine Okwoche, said he was alerted by some of chiefs in his council about the influx of people from Cross River into the council area and he immediately went to see for himself.
“A few weeks ago, precisely on Monday July 3, the Chiefs of Owo and Aibila came to my office to inform me that there were strangers in their domain and that some of the faces were familiar to them while others were not. I had to visit the area immediately to see things for myself while I got in contact with authorities of both Benue and Cross River states to establish the reality.
“When I got to the area, I saw the people everywhere in the community, they were predominantly women and children. I was amazed at the number of helpless people that I saw. So, I had to urgently put security in place. About four hours later, as the situation escalated, more people trooped in and I saw young men on motorcycles arriving with wounded persons from battlefronts.
“I was moved with great sympathy on sighting the displaced people. Some of them were still bleeding from fresh wounds sustained during the fight at the time of my first visit. It was indeed a sorry sight to behold,” Okwoche recalled.
He stated further that by the following day, which was Tuesday, the displaced persons had occupied five communities in his domain following the escalation of the crisis between the two warring communities, a development which made him to immediately alert the Special Adviser on Security.
Okwoche said Governor Samuel Ortom did not waste time in responding as he immediately directed the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Boniface Ortese, to proceed to the area and provide relief materials for the immediate needs of the IDPs.
“The governor mandated the Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Boniface Ortese, to attend to the needs of the victims. My council had earlier provided immediate relief items within its financial capacity to hold up before SEMA came to the rescue.
“We had to accommodate the displaced people in churches in the area because schools were in session. Everyone in the local government rallied around the victims to provide help no matter how little as the condition involved saving lives.”
Okwoche revealed that four babies were delivered by some of the pregnant victims within the first few days of arriving in the local government. And added that he is still doing everything possible in other areas to ensure that the displaced persons were well catered for.
The LG boss also appreciated both the Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom for his swift response and the Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, who sent a high powered delegation led by the Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.
Okwoche however posited that with the walkable proximity of Oju in Benue where the victims are kept to the warring communities in Cross River State, there was likelihood of a spillover of the crisis in Benue, hence the need for everyone in his domain to be security conscious.