The renewed communal clash in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State has allegedly claimed the life of a farmer and properties worth several thousands of naira destroyed.
The clash, according to DAILY POST findings occurred on Thursday between the people of Ebom and Usumutong in Abi.
It was gathered that the victim, Obeten Ube, a farmer was attacked in his farm on Thursday and whisked away to unknown destination by armed men from Usumutong
A woman, Diana Bassey, who was also in her farm, was assaulted but luckily escaped being whisked away.
It would be recall that the two communities from Abi local government area of Cross River state have been in crises, which had claimed the lives of dozens of people and properties worth millions of naira over farm land.
Usumutong have also been in communal war with her neighbour, Ediba still on land matters.
The Chairman of Ebom community, Chief Sunday Obeten, told newsmen on Thursday that the incident occurred on Thursday at about 9am when people were in their farm working.
“What happened was a case of injustice happening inside our farm land. Today as people went to farm they met some armed men.
“Our people were afraid, panicked and ran away, this has been happening for some times now and we have been reporting to the Chief of Osumutong and they said they will find out and they will warn their people.
“But today, the armed men surrounded the farm where one of our women was, beaten her mercilessly and asked her not to talk, they threatened to kill her but she escaped.
“Another male farmer who was in his farm and not aware of what was happening was surrounded by the armed men, beaten and taken him away.
“What we are hearing is that the man was tortured before he was finally taken away and we have not heard from him till now.
“We don’t know if he is dead or alive. The information came to us around 9am this morning.
“We have no problem but the community has been treating us badly. If you are in Cross River State, in 2009 you might have heard what happened, they kidnapped two of our people, still we refuse to fight because we are praying for peace in our community.
“Along the line, the Usumutong people had problem with Ediba, they kidnap our person, killed him, still we did not do anything. They entered our farmlands almost every day destroying people’s yam, they even took the sticks away, we still kept quiet.
“They have been victimizing us in many ways and we have been reporting to their Chief. Sometime we will send delegates, sometimes we talk on phone.
“Even last week, we reported to their chief when they threatened one of our men that were riding his bike and he fell down and got bruises all over his body.” He lamented.
When DAILY POST contacted on phone, an elder statesman of Usumutong, Ibe Urom, he said that though there was little crisis but nobody was abducted noting that his community was investigating the matter
“Actually, there was some sort of misunderstanding between the two communities, but no farmer was abducted, an investigation is still going on”.
However, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ms Irene Ugbo, who had earlier promised to give the details to us refused to pick her calls when we called back some hours later.
Comments