Cross River state has been the epicentre of communal crisis over time with lives and property wasted without any solution at sight. The latest festering crisis within the once-peaceful Henshaw Town in Calabar calls for concern. JOSEPH OBUNG in this report narrates the cause.
Records of violenceJust few weeks ago, the age-long animosity between the people of Ukele in Yala local government area of Cross River state and their neighbours in Igbe Agu, Izzi local government area of Ebonyi state snowballed into uncontrollable conflagration in which, at least, 40 people were killed while 1,500 houses were set ablaze and about 11,000 persons from the two communities displaced.
This sad tale could also be told of Ikot Offiong/Mbiabo communities of the state and the Oku Iboku/Ikpanya people of Akwa Ibom. Today, Ikot Offiong people have no place they can call a home as the whole community has been sacked with thousands of people also displaced due to the intensity of the conflict. At the moment, two communities, Idim Ndom and Obom Itiat in Odupani local government area of the state, are at each other’s jugular.
Moreover, what started as a brotherly disagreement between the people of Usumutong and Ebom in Abi local government area has culminated into a theatre of destruction and bloodshed. Just last week, a father and son were beheaded in the ensuing endless conflict while returning from farm. The warriors even made the wife of the man to watch while they beheaded their victims.
Reports across the state indicates that many of such senseless killings have been on the increase. Cross River, which was once seen as the most peaceful state in the country, is vast becoming a haven of criminalities, including wanton killings and destruction.
Regrettable, these destructive tendencies which most times erupt over claims to ownership of land or traditional chieftaincy succession, have thrown up questions regarding the capacity of government to tackle security challenges and take protection of life and property as top priority.
Many analysts have, in recent times, described both the federal and state government as toothless bulldogs considering the level of avoidable killings in the country. Investigation shows that relevant government agencies that can handle the security challenges are often found wanting.
Moreover, the state government’s efforts had remained temporal in the face of intimidating threats to lives and property; most times, they come too late. This has thrown up questions on why critical sstakeholder like the people, government and security agencies would not arrest such hydra-headed monsters on time.
Henshaw Town in bad publicityIt was gathered that despite the pains, suffering and agony that communal conflict unleashes on victims, another avoidable crisis is brewing in Henshaw Town, a community within the heart the state capital, Calabar which was once a peaceful settlement.The crisis has already resulted in the locking up of Henshaw Town council hall by a faction of the community leaders resulting in interesting legal fireworks and threats from youths. This could culminate into unpredictable loss of lives and destruction of property anytime, any day.
Investigations indicates that Henshaw Town Council (HTC), formed in 1901 by the people of the Henshaw Town community, is made up of five royal families that include Ewa Ekeng family, Ekeng Iwatt family, Effanga Offiong family, Andem Ankoi family and Effiom Ewa Nsa family with an ‘Etubom’ as head of each family.
The 1980 constitution of HTC advised that each one produces five members to constitute the council and that one of the five members sent to HTC must be an Etubom. It further stipulates that HTC must be presided over by a president elected by the council and who must be an Etubom. The said constitution also provides for other offices for the smooth running of the council.
The bone of contention is on who presides over the affairs of HTC. While the over 95- year-old Etubom Inyang George Duke Henshaw, who was until 2013, the president of the HTC, is insisting that he remained life president, Etubom Nyong Effion Okon said Etubom Inyang GD Henshaw had formally handed over to him since 2013 as the most senior Etubom through a letter transmitted to the council in which Etubom Inyang Henshaw said he could not continue as president due to his failing health and old age.
It was learnt that trouble started when Etubom Henshaw dispatched a letter dated 23 May, 2019 to the council to revoke Etubom Nyong’s appointment as acting president, saying that he was recovering his position.
In another letter dated May 22, 2019 and signed by him, Etubom Henshaw invited a private security group, Manhatan Security, to lock up the secretariat for three weeks. Again, on May 23 2019, he wrote another letter to the secretary of council informing him about sealing up the secretariat.
The letter said, “The sealing is to secure the council for a temporary period after which we expect to restore regular order of business at council upon series of consultation with relevant stakeholders.” Since then, the secretariat had remained sealed to the anger of some section of members of the council.
A brickwallIn his response to the letter, secretary to the council, Elder Effiom Ewa Magnus Henshaw rejected the idea of employing the services of any group to seal up the secretariat. In a letter addressed to the commissioner of police, the secretary said 12 thugs invaded the council secretariat when their meeting was ongoing, ordering all the traditional rulers who were at the meeting to leave the premises.
He said Etubom Inyang Henshaw, who purportedly masterminded the sealing does not have power, even when he was an executive president, to seal the premises, offices and disband a meeting of the council. He added that the incident happened even when there was no criminal complaints against the council or any report or evidence of fracas likely to cause a breach of peace.
Apart from the police, the Department of State Service, (DSS) was also brought into the matter, but since peace remained evasive, the matter was taken to the Cross River state High Court in suit HC/186/2019 but was adjourned for hearing till October 24, 2019. The case is between Etubom Nyong Effiom Okon and four others against Etubom Effio-Ita Effiom and others.
Interestingly, Etubom Effio-Ita Effiom was capped as ‘Etubom’ by Etubom Nyong Okon.However, adjourning the case seems not to have calmed frayed nerves as the faction loyal to Etubom Henshaw insisted, in a publication that Etubom Nyong Effiom Okon, who had presided over the affairs of the council since 2013, had been removed, saying anyone who transacts any business with him does so at his/her own risk. Seven Etuboms signed the public notice.
Reacting to his removal, Etubom Okon said he remains the president of the council and that those who claimed to have removed him should have enumerated his offences.
He said the 1928 constitution of the council, which was amended in 1980, does not convey powers on any one or group of individuals to overtly remove a sitting president, saying his purported removal as head of the council was a figment of his opponents’ imagination.The royal father also berated some signatories to the said publication, saying some of them were none members of the council and so do not have any power whatsoever to remove him.
“The people who said they have removed me have no right. Before you become a member of HTC, your immediate family must elect you and present you to HTC for screening and induction. I was presented and screened by HTC and so nobody on earth can remove me from the council except my family withdraws me. Many of the signatories in the said publication are not members of HTC; some of them are not even Etuboms, they are impostors,” he stated.
According to him, he was elected substantive president of the council on March 2019 after six years of serving in acting capacity through the endorsement of the council members. He described the said publication as a facade which would not stand.
The publication may have whipped up tension as many high-ranking members of the council who spoke feared that such move could lead to the breakdown of law and order, saying stakeholders who allegedly removed Etubom Okon should have exercised caution pending the determination of the case still pending in court.
Looming crisisHowever, checks revealed that the community is only having peace of the graveyard as factions and stakeholders are boiling with rage for and against. Whereas Etubom Henshaw and his camp is bent on ensuring Etubom Okon ceases to preside over the affairs of the council, Etubom Okon, backed by the council secretary and other senior members of the council, is daring the other group to go to hell.
Efforts to contact Etubom Henshaw for his comment could not sail through as his telephone line was switched off as at press time.
When Blueprint visited Henshaw Town community shortly before filling this report, personnel of Nigeria Police were seen patrolling the area. However, there is palpable fear that the situation could go out of hand. With the atmosphere pregnant with anxiety, the time for authorities to bring the contending groups into a reconciliatory round table is now for a stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
