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| Hopelessness in SouthSou Ukelle (credit: CRSPHCDA) |
Nyok|6 July 2018
There’s ongoing bloody land dispute between the Izzi people of Ebonyi resident in Yala and the people of southern Ukele in Yala LGA of Cross River State.
Lives have been lost, houses razed down, families displaced, hunger, unfruitful peace talks held and the crisis continues unabated —the Izzi people are bent on pounding harder despite calls for peace.
Recently, the Acting Governor of the Cross River, Prof Ivara Ejemot Esu was there with representatives from the Governor of Ebonyi State in view of addressing the challenges once and for all.
The pictures featured here barely represent the depth of despondency, despair and hopelessness that have greeted the people of southern Ukele in Yala.
For instance, immediately after the two states government left with a peace truce early this week, one of the indigenes of Ukele, Mr Joe Esse, had this to say yesterday:
‘Yesterday the good people of Ukelle returned to their normal activities after weeks of provocations and assault by the Izzi’s, thinking that the “peace talk” held between the governments of Cross River and Ebonyi yesterday (3/07/18) would have calmed the nerves of our tormentors.
‘Our mother’s went to the market for the first time in almost a month, our fathers and youths went to check their crops in the farm thinking that all is well and that at last peace has returned to Ukelle. Little did they know that their tormentors had laid ambushed waiting to cut the throats of infants at home, slaughter our fathers on their way to the farm and shoot at our youths without remorse.
‘We accepted the peace accord even when we have been at the receiving end of the Izzi’s hostilities not knowing that we did so at our own peril. *AN ENTIRE VILLAGE @ Ijibolo has been RAZED DOWN and more devastating stories than that of Lesoh (Lesok) has just began.
‘The UKELLE NATION IS BLEEDING and our patience and peaceful nature is being taken for simplicity. We are watching our God given heritage taken forcefully by intruders.’
The Director General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu, has this to say about the crisis being one it the delegation with the Acting Governor to Ukelle on the 3rd of July:
‘You don’t know pain until you have tried to cry and your voice can’t even come out, just tears and you wish for death!
‘How do you console a woman whose house has been burnt down with her children in it?
‘How do you console a woman whose child and husband were killed during the communal clash?
‘Was I supposed to say all will be well? Can all really be well again? There are some things that happen to you as a mother and it’s honestly better for you to just die at the spot than live with the unending unbearable pain!
‘I have been to southern Ukelle twice, they are peace loving people and have always welcomed me with smiles and jubilation. Yesterday the villages were deserted… I went through them like I was in ghost towns. Of course the men warned me not to go there, but I had lost appetite for caution, my soul was broken and I can only imagine the pain they are going through.
‘Why have we as Nigerians lost our love for a communal life. When did we stop being our brothers keeper, why have we become vampires seeking blood? why do we strive to take people’s land by force? why won’t we give peace A chance!
‘I saw women, children, men in their thousands who need help! Some are still in the bush, unsure of what tomorrow holds…. why really have we kept peace at the back burner *tears*
‘Am glad the Acting Governor Prof Ivara Esu who represented our Boss Sen Ben Ayade was on ground to bring lasting peace to the area. The meeting between the two states with the Deputy Governor from Ebonyi state Hon. Kelechi Igwe coming with his people to sourthen Ukelle to sign the peace treaty was very successful. Also DG national border commission was there and has promised to extend the peace to all the border problems between Cross River State and other states… ‘
Let peace prevail, let the governments of the two states evolve lasting solution to the crisis.
Nyok
Is the Blogger-in-Chief, Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of NegroidHaven