Pandemonium broke out Wednesday as scores of fishermen from two neigbouring communities of Oku Iboku in Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom state and Ikot Offiong in Odukpani local government area of Cross River state remains unknown after attacked by unknown gunmen.
It was gathered that unknown gunmen on speed boats invaded the fishing communities in the early hours of Tuesday.
According a fisherman Etim Bassey from Ikot Offiong, “the whole thing started in the night, at about 2am. Normally fishing is better done in the morning if you want to good catch. Our people were fishing when the men came in speed boats and started shooting. I don’t know if any one was killed but we cannot account for some of our people.”
The chairman, Itu local government area, Mr. Etetim Onuk on Tuesday afternoon in the company of the Army operations officer, 2 Brigade, Uyo, Capt. SS Jatau and the DPO, Itu local government area visited the scene of the incident.
Speaking, the council chairman condemned the attacks on the innocent community members who were going about their lawful means of livelihood, but, met their untimely death. He called on both the state and federal governments to ensure deployment of more security personnel to the area in order to beef up security along the coastal communities.
An indigene of the community who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that the search for the missing persons has commenced.
According to the source, “You know in an attack like this, the corpses will start to float say, 24 hours after. So, the search for the missing has started. No corpse has been found yet.”
“The gun men are suspected to be from Ikot Offiong, they came in speed boats and started sporadic shootings, and they were prevented from further attacks by the soldiers on the beach who returned fire for fire and they had to retreat. Yes, there is a small military post close to the beach. They had already started shooting before getting to the beach”.
The boundary crises between Oku Iboku community in Akwa Ibom state, and Ikot Offiong in Cross River state which have lingered for decades now have so far claimed thousands of lives and property worth several millions of naira.
