Cultists kill one, displace over 3,000 in Akwa Ibom

By BASSEY ANTHONY, Uyo

Unknown gunmen have allegedly killed one and rendered over 3,000 people homeless in Inen community, OrukAnam local government area of Akwa Ibom

The deceased, Aniema Etuk, reportedly left the Internally Displaced Camp to fetch food for her children but was allegedly killed by hoodlums.

The over 3,000 people quartered in refugee camps at Ikot Ibritam in the OrukAnam council area are suffering from a lack of basic needs of life.

They have therefore begged the State government and donor agencies to ameliorate their sufferings.

The refugees are victims of a bloody clash between the Iceland and Debam secret cult confraternities which have claimed many lives, rendered the community inaccessible, and cut off means of livelihoods in the community.

One of the wounded IDPs receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in Uyo said she was accosted and manhandled by cultists at Inen Junction and left in the pool of her blood.

” I am a widow. I fled from Inen Ikot Offiong when the activities of the Cultists became unbearable. I ran away the day cultists set the police post ablaze. The building was very close to my house. So I picked my children and ran to Christ Faith Church, Ikot Ibritam, the council headquarters where all of us in the community are taking refuge as a refugee camp. ”

” On Monday my children were very hungry and were crying for food. I asked myself what I have done to deserve this kind of condition. Then I moved to the village at about 10 am to bring food items from my farm for my children. As I arrived Inen Junction close to my house, the cultists numbering 20 shouted me to stop. They came into a group and slapped me one by one. Two of them brought out matchet and cut my back, leg, hands, and all parts of my body” she cried.

‘ I don’t know how my children are doing to survive in the church premises now. Here I need money for food and drugs and to pay for my medical bill here .”

The Public Relations Officer of Inen Stakeholders Forum Mr. Anyanime Umoren said indigenes of the community in diaspora considered the plight of people who fled the community in the wake of cultist hostilities in the area and contributed money to buy food items at the IDP camp in Ikot Ibritam, the council headquarters.

He said the chairman of the Forum. Barr Akpan Brown and Elder Uduak Ewitat with other people bought about three bags of Garri and other foodstuffs to share for displaced persons in the camp at Christ Faith Church but the food items were not enough for the people.

” We discovered that the food items could not go round for about 3,000 refugees in the camp including women and children. We decided to stop sharing to avoid uproar in the camp.”

” Right now we have levied our people so that we can raise money and buy more foodstuffs for the people. We are pleading with donor agencies and Government to save these displaced persons from hunger and starvation while the government is tackling the wave of cultism occasioned by killings and all forms of hostilities in the area.”

” The widow now in the hospital needs more than N3m for treatment and we don’t know how the money would be raised to save her lives. The children she left to feign for them are now stranded in the camp. It is a terrible situation. We need help,” he said.

Umoren urged the government to intervene in the plight of the refugees especially the wife of governor Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel to visit the vulnerable women now camping at Christ Faith Church, Ikot Ibritam, and extend helping hands to the needy.

In a telephone interview, Police Public Relations Officer in Akwa Ibom, Odiko Mcdon said the command is tackling cultism in the area as there is an ongoing special operation to bring perpetrators of the nefarious acts to book.

“There is a special operation in the area to fish out the cultists terrorizing the Community.” (The Nation)