To avert an impending bloodbath looming between Ifa Ikot Akpan village and Ibiaku Issiet village all in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state over a land dispute, the former has sent a Save our Soul (SoS) message to the National Judicial Commission, the Inspector General of Police and the Senate Committee on Human Rights to intervene in the matter.
The Ifa Village Council Chairman, Chief Okon Edet, who spoke with some journalists in Uyo on Tuesday during a peaceful protest claimed that the crisis started when the piece of land under dispute and purportedly belonged to Ifa Ikot Akpan was leased to Gitto Construction Company to dredge sand for the construction of the Victor Attah International Airport.
He said some miscreants from the neighbouring village of Ibiaku Issiet still went ahead to encroach on the land already leased to the company to cause violence and unleash mayhem to Ifa people.
Edet recalled that the paramount ruler of Uruan, where Ibiaku Issiet is inclusive ,HRM Edidem Eba Ekanem had in the year 2000 ruled that the land in dispute belonged to Ifa Ikot Akpan village from time immemorial and since after the ruling, normalcy returned to both communities but expressed worry that eight years after(2008), the people of Ibiaku Issiet came back to cause trouble as soon as they learnt the land had been leased out to Gitto Construction Company.
He also explained that since Ifa village did not want the crisis to escalate, they decided to institute a legal action against the rival village but was disappointed that the matter was upturned in court as the presiding Judge, Justice Charles Ikpe allegedly delivered a ‘spurious ‘judgement in Suit No:HU/71/2017 where he dismissed the case before it as lacking merit.
He added that the judgement by Justice Ikpe emboldened the people of Ibiaku Issiet to attack, maim and brutalize Ifa people especially, farmers and the women found around the boundary area and called on the Judicial Service Commission, to revisit the matter before it turns into a full-blown communal war.
The press statement reads in parts, “We call on the NJC, Police, Senate and other relevant authorities to come to our aid and save us from possible bloodbath and further destruction of our properties and lives by some miscreants believed to be indigenes of Ibiaku Issiet in Uruan local government area.
“The crisis is erupted by a spurious judgement delivered by Justice Charles Ikpe in Suit No: HU/71/2017 where he hurriedly dismissed the case as lacking merit.
“Powered by this spurious judgement, Ibiaku people ganged up by with cultists, beating up and brandishing machetes on our people at the farms and the market places.
“We appeal to the National Judicial Council to revisit the case to forestall impending bloodbath in the warring communities.”
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