29th October, 2010
As the surviving victims of the recent Boje and Nsadop communal conflict in Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, South South Nigeria, continue to count their losses, the state governor, Liyel Imoke has condemned the wanton killings and imposed curfew in the area.
Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Patrick Ugbe, Imoke said the scale of destruction of farm crops and property as well as the needless loss of lives in Nsadop was a shocking escalation of the dispute at hand and totally unacceptable to his administration.
“This administration, up to the last moment, had actively intervened by inviting the leaders of the warring communities to amicably resolve the dispute and prevent this crisis from unfolding. Despite these and many other attempts, the communities still resorted to violence,†the governor said.
He ordered the immediate confiscation of the disputed land lying between Boje and Nsadop and called on the Surveyor-General of the state to delineate the affected area.
He also ordered the imposition of an indefinite dusk to dawn curfew between 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. in Boje, Nsadop and adjoining communities of Bansan and Iso Bendeghe, with immediate effect.
He said a Judicial Panel of Inquiry would be set up with a view to determining the remote and immediate causes of the conflict.
Meanwhile, the dead victims of the war were given a mass burial in the village of Nsadop on Wednesday amidst wailing by women of the three affected villeges after over 70 of the men were killed last Saturday during the battle.
The bodies were lowered into a mass grave dug at the centre of the town on Wednesday by few of the remaining youths in Nsadop.
The bodies, which were used by the Boje combatants to mount road blocks along their common border with the Nsadop, were mangled and decapitated.
“They (Boje) left the forest where the combat was going on and took a hidden route to our homes and began to destroy our houses. When we got wind of it and came from the forest, they laid ambush for us and killed us like rats,†a youth who gave his name as Christopher told P.M.NEWS.
According to him, the Boje combatants only selected men and left the women during the ‘massacre’. Every male, whether child, visitor, cripple, blind or mad was hacked to death by the Boje people because they said they want to exterminate all of us,” he added.
—Emmanuel Una /Calabar
