SUNDAY March 16, 2025 |TheNewsDESK
By Our REPORTER
An aggrieved widow and victim of Ibeno communal attack, Mrs. Immaculate Sampson Akpan has cried out to the Federal, State and Local Governments for help, following the invasion of Ndito Eka Iba village, where the husband was gruesomely murdered during the alleged inferno on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024 by their Eket Local Government neighbours.
Mrs. Akpan, who spoke told Reporters in Ibeno at the weekend, also appealed to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, churches and other public – spirited Nigerians for help to more 2000 displaced victims including children.
The window, who spoke with tears while narrating her ordeal to The Daily Monitor Newspaper said, her late husband, from Eket LGA, but lived in Ndito Eka Iba community in Ibeno LGA, to carry out fishing business was killed for his patriotism by Eket aggressors, seeking to cede Ndito Eka Iba village to Eket Local Government Area.
The December 24, 2024 attack on Ndito Eka Iba village by the attackers from Eket was the fourth in the series of attacks on Ibeno LGA since the controversial attempt by the former Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel to remap Akwa Ibom State which the case is presently in court.
According to her, “we have lived in Ndito Eka Iba village peacefully for over forty years. The last attack has left a huge pains on the community members after the invaders from Eket LGA launched arson on homes, destroying Churches, health center, several boats with outboard engines, cars, motorcycles and other valuables including fishing gears.
“If the government does not wade in this time around and stop the Eket and Esit Eket people from setting up parallel village administrations in Ibeno East communities like; Itak Ifa, Atia, Nubaraks, Itak Idung Ekpe, Itak Idem and Okom Ita among others, which is what causes the crisis in Ndito Eka Iba, can spill to many villages in Ibeno and cause more crisis”.
The mother of four also recalled the several missing children, whose whereabouts remain unknown till today stating that, “When our neighbours from Eket LGA launched the attack on the night of December 24, 2024, we were caught unawares.
“Prior to the attack, the attackers had attempted to host a party to herald the Christmas Day, but instead of using the village name of Ndito Eka Iba which is Unit 6, Ward 10 a gazetted village in Ibeno on their flex, instead used the name Okoiyak Ekid, to reflect their Eket identity; that Ndito Eka Iba village in Ibeno LGA, is no longer belonging to Ibeno LGA, but Eket LGA.
“Because of this, the youths of Ndito Eka Iba village, approached them, and advised them against altering the original name of the village, but they rather threatened war, which they (the Eket people) later launched that eventful night, forcing people to escape into the shrubs where they spent the night before coming out in the morning to seek refuge in other communities.
“The entire village of Ndito Eka Iba has been left in total ruins and I have relocated to my village – Odio in Eket LGA, after my husband had been killed, while his remains buried in a shallow grave without his head taken away by the attackers.
“I have been dislocated from where I used to do business with my four children, trading in fish, crayfish and other seafoods like periwinkles, prawns and others.
“I called on the security agencies and the State Government to rise up and protect Ibeno people, who are facing extinction through incessant attacks by the Eket and Esit Eket Local Government neighbours”.
Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police (CP), Baba Azare, when contacted on the incident said, the suspects were still in the Police custody as the investigations have been done.
“Investigations on the case had since been concluded and the suspects charged to Court”, stated assuring that, no one has any right to interfere in the matter.
“I take full responsibility over the case, and I have spoken with the investigative officer who told me that the matter had already been charged to Court”, CP Azare noted.
