HOW AN EBONYI PRINCESS WAS MURDERED BY HER PEOPLE

HOW EBONYI PRINCESS WAS MURDERED BY HER PEOPLE

There is a saying in Akwa Ibom that when a man urinates into a stream, if his father’s people do not drink from it, his mother people will. The Igbos also have a saying that when a man throws a stone into a market place it may likely land on his relation. These sayings came came to passed on Saturday January 19, 2012 when the people of Ndiagu Amagu community in Ebonyi State allegedly attacked their neighbours in Adadama community in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State over boundary issues.

An Ebonyi Princess, Mrs. Marvis Egbe was attending the funeral ceremonies of her husband aunt, late Mrs. Helen Enang, aged 71, when the attackers from Ndiagu Amagu invaded Adadama that morning. Her in laws in trying to save her life from the invaders arranged for a motorcyclist to take her to the nearest community, Itigidi, where her husband, a lecturer in the Department of Medical Laboratory Science, University of Calabar, Mr Edmund Egbe has gone to. But Marvis did not make it to safety as she was killing on the way by men dressed in military and Mobile policemen uniforms.

The sight of the Hilux vans with “policemen” might have given a relief to Marvis and the cyclist that help has come to Adadama community which was under siege. But the “soldiers and policemen” instead of being angels of rescue turned into angels of death. They opened fire at Marvis and the cyclist; and not convinced that they were death, they inflicted machetes cut on their victims to be sure that they were actually dead. And even attempted to cut off their heads when some indigenes of Itigidi Community, who were going to Adadama stumbled on the scene and raised alarm.

But what the attackers did not know that the lady, who was pleading with them in Igbo, to spare her life was actually one of their own, their own blood as Nigerians are wont to say. Marvis hailed from the same community with the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. Dave Umahi, who is also the Chairman of the Ebonyi State Boundary Committee. The late Marvis was the daughter of the late Eze  of Uburu Etiti community in Ohaozara local government of Ebonyi State, His Royal Highness, Eze Agwu Akpa. Her corpse is lying at the morgue of the Eja Memorial Hospital, Itigidi, where she was fleeing for safety. Itigidi is the headquarters of Abi local government area as well as the seat of the Divisional Police Office in Abi.

Aged 38 and a mother of two children ages six and one and a half years, Marvis was among the 12 or so persons alleged to have been killed by Ndiagu attackers. Until her demise, Marvis was a Desk Officer in charge of Hostel accommodation in the Student Affairs Department of the University of Calabar, Cross River State.  Before now, she was a teacher with the Cross River State Cross River State Post Primary School Board before joining the services of the university. Described as bold and courageous, by her colleagues, Marvis was teaching in Ebom Community in Abi local government area at the height of the Ebom-Ebijakara inter communal crisis in Abi, when even indigenes of these two communities were scared to visit their homes she was always at her duty post, commuting daily from Adadama to Ebom until she was transferred to Government Secondary School, Akim, IBB Way Calabar from where she joined the services of the UNICAL.

Killed alongside with her was a cyclist, who was taking her to safety in Itigidi. Identified as Christian Edu Ideaba, an indigene of Ikamine clan in Itigidi community. Christian, aged 35, was a teacher recently transferred from Akamkpa local government area of Cross River state to Adadamma, was fleeing from Adadama , where he was posted to, when Marvis’s  in-law pleaded with  him to help convey their ‘wife’ to safety in Itigidi,  when the invaders arrived Adadama. The first son of his parents, Christian did not make it home as he was killed on the way.

Saturday, January 19, the Adadamma community was in a mournful mood as they were preparing for the burial. Indigenes of Adadama have no premonition that their neighbours would carry out a surprise attack on them. Their confidence was based on the fact that after a series of skirmishes between the two communities in the early days of January 2013; there was a cease fire mutually agreed between the two communities that they would not attack each other rather they have agreed to meet on Monday, January 21, to carry out a joint assessment of the piece of land in contention and the meeting would have involved the Chairman of Abi and Ikwo Local Government Councils and The Divisional Police Officers as well as other government officials from Ebonyi and Cross Rivers and leaders from the two communities.. Family sources told our correspondent that it was based on this ceasefire and peace agreement that the burial was fixed for that weekend and Marvis and her husband decided to attend the funeral.

According to sources from Adadama, the attackers invaded the community at about 9 am while some came through water another   group of heavily armed men some dressed in Mobile Police uniforms numbering 20 and driven in two brand new Hilux van without licence plates came in from itigidi through Ugep-Abakaliki road at Agbo central into Adadama, blocked the entrance and started killing any human that came their way. It is believed that it is this group that murdered the fleeing Marvis and the cyclist.

Member representing Abi in the Cross River State House of Assembly, Mr. John Lebo, who is also the House ad hoc committee Chairman on Boundary Matters, alleged that the Ebonyi state government lured the Cross River team to the negotiation table and then turned around to attack their people without any sense of apology. According to Lebo, “the coordinated nature of the attack and the use of sophisticated Assault Rifles, Hilux pickups and brand new buses to invade Cross River is a pointer to the fact that this attack was planned and funded.” He noted that the reaction and response of the Ebonyi State Government has heightened suspicion that the attack was sponsored. More than 2000 persons from Adadama has been displaced as a result of this incident and they are currently taking refuge in the neighboring communities of Itigidi, Ahong Bahumono, Ediba and Ekori and Yakurr Local Government Area, Cross River State.

The boundary dispute between Adadama and their Ndiagu Amagu neigbours has lasted for more than a hundred years and 2012 was the centenary anniversary of a boundary point known as Ugoli which Amagu people claimed was mutually agreed between their ancestors and those of the Adamama people. But a source in Abi faulted this claim and alleged that the desire of Ikwo people is to chase every Cross River community living on the Western side of the Cross River to the other side. According to this traditional ruler, the Ebonyi people are insisting that the Cross River should serve as the natural boundary between the two states and any Cross River village on across the Itigidi Bridge is an intruder and would be chase away. He recalled that a community called Igbo Imagbana was once on the Western side of the river where Adadama and Itigidi are currently are but due to boundary disputes they relocated to their present location. The source lamented that the boundary disputes between Ebonyi and Abi communicities can be trace to the boasting of Ebonyi people that they will chase all Abi communities to the Ediba side of the Cross River.

Who are the aggressors and who are the victims? This is a question that few men the warring community or the two states can honestly answer, everyone is claiming to be the victim and his neighbor the aggressor. At  press briefing tagged  “Ending The Ebonyi-Cross River States, Boundary Dispute,” Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Engr. Dave Umahi, blamed the crises and the human loss on the Cross River State Government and the National Boundary Commission  because of their failure  to live up to their statutory responsibilities. A text of the press briefing which was published as advertorial in some national newspapers did not make mention of the Saturday, January attack on Adadama people and the allegation that the organization and weapons used by the attackers were beyond the capacity of Ndiagu Amagu Community. According to Umahi, “the genesis of the recent hostilities could be traced to November 23, 2011 when some irate youths from Adadama attacked a team of consultants working on a World Bank Assisted erosion management project at Ndiagu Amegu Ikwo.”

 Umahi recalled the various attacks and counter attacks between the two communities and submitted “It is regrettable however that in spite of the numerous letters I have written to the Deputy Governor of Cross River State for the two states to meet and discuss the issues affecting their border communities, there has been no response from them. It would seem that the NBC have abandoned its earlier attempt to do ethnographic study of the area following threats from Cross River indigenes to the commission not to step feet into the disputed area.”

Presenting the Cross River State side of the story, the State Security Adviser Mr. Rekpene Bassey in a press statement issued in Calabar said “We received a number of tested security reports about the abduction of persons from Adadama Community in Abi Local Government Area on 13 and 14 January 2013. According to some of the reports, armed militia from Amagu Community in Ikwo Local Government Council of Ebonyi State assailed upon Adadama people on the said date, and abducted four persons including one Mma Ekama Edu Ekpala on Monday 14 January 2013. A day before, to wit, 13 January 2013, Amagu people had abducted one Chief Vincent Ekpa Egbe while on his way to Okpuitomo village in Ikwo Local Government Area for a meeting. Chief Egbe was later found with several matchet cuts on the head and other parts of his body, and was therefore rushed on the

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same day to the Eja Memorial Hospital in Itigidi for medical attention.

“On the same Monday, 14 January 2013, Amagu militia shot to death one Anthony Enang Isang whose remains were deposited at the Eja Memorial Hospital in Itigidi while one Edu Sylvester was also fatally shot at, but survived the gun wounds. Assailants from Amagu vandalized a border police post constructed by the Cross River State Government same day.

“Untested sources had claimed that persons of Adadama extraction also abducted one or two Ikwo persons which veracity is yet to be ascertained. The aforesaid are the immediate causes of the recent hostilities between the Adadama and Ikwo Communities which have had long standing disagreements over a parcel of land in the area.”

Bassey continued that “security operatives were deployed to intervene while peace meetings spearheaded by the Chairmen of Abi and Ikwo Local Government Areas and 10 delegates from Amagu/Adadama respectively and the Divisional Police Officers and field chiefs of the Department of State Services in both Local Government Areas was convened. It was resolved among other things at the meetings that parties in the conflict should embrace peace, eschew violence and hold back on hostilities. It was also agreed that the parties withdraw from the boundary lines of the land under dispute to be taken over by the security authorities. The parties further agreed to embark on a joint assessment visit to the affected communities on Monday, 21 January 2013.”

According to Bassey, “At that point it was believed that both communities had agreed to give peace a chance pending the amicable resolution of issues in the dispute. But while the Abi team kept faith and waited for the agreed joint assessment tour, several persons armed to the teeth with service weapons including AK 47 and Lar riffles (as evidenced by hundreds of empty ammo shells recovered from the scene of the attacks) invaded Adadama town and its precincts on Saturday, 19 January 2013.

“The gruesome attacks of Saturday, 19 January 2013 were carried out from three flanks on land and water and were well coordinated and expertly executed between 0900–1000 hrs, bringing to the fore speculations of either official complicity or culpable negligence as reflected in its execution. Such speculation becomes all the more disturbing. What is even more worrisome is the fact of the use of high caliber lethal service weapons and ammunition to assail upon civilians in the Community during which innocent persons including children and women were brutally murdered and beheaded in a rather grotesque and barbaric manner. Hundreds of others have since been displaced.”

“How and where the perpetrators of the Saturday, 19 January 2013 mayhem accessed such sophisticated weapons. The other pertinent query is who the perpetrators are and where official security operatives deployed by the authorities to maintain peace in the area were when the spontaneous attacks from the flanks occurred,” queried Bassey.

Cross River State Acting Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Efiok Cobham, and Chairman of the State Boundary Committe, when he visited Adadama, on Sunday, January, said government has put machinery in motion in ensuring that normalcy returns to the area and urged them to cooperate with the law enforcement personnel drafted to the area and avoid self- help as it will only worsen the situation since two wrongs cannot make a right.

Cobham said, “I am here to commiserate with you over the unfortunate incident that happened yesterday, we share with you in your sorrow and we are committed to stand by you to ensure that we get to the root causes of the crises, because no responsible government will fold its arms and watch its citizens been mal-treated not to talk of killing of its citizenry, we will not allow the perpetrators go scot free, all of them will be brought to justice”

He condemned the attack despite a cease fire meeting to broker peace between the communities and warned Adadama community against reprisal attack, and added that this will only lead to more casualties.

To restore peace in the warring communities, Umahi, who insisted that Ebonyi State, is not at war with Cross River “Call on the National Boundary Commission to urgently call a meeting of the two states so that the issues can be discussed.” The Deputy Governor called on the people of Amagu Ikwo to remain calm while the State Government makes the necessary efforts resolve the problem.

Bassey, on the part of Cross River State “call upon the Federal Government to immediately intervene to prevent a reoccurrence and/or an escalation of the hostilities between both communities and the area generally. Having said that, we implore our people to maintain peace, the Federal authorities to intervene and find answers to these questions, and urgently too, to do all that is possible to forestall further hostilities in the area. Meanwhile, the National Boundary Commission would also do well to intervene with appropriate necessary action without further delay.”