Posted by By BONIFACE NZAMA, Calabar on
Bloodshed between Izzi and Ukelle border communities appears to have defied the peace meeting held last week between Dr. Sam Egwu and Mr. Donald Duke, governors of Ebonyi and Cross River States.
Bloodshed between Izzi and Ukelle border communities appears to have defied the peace meeting held last week between Dr. Sam Egwu and Mr. Donald Duke, governors of Ebonyi and Cross River States.
Few days after the two states governors had met in Calabar to negotiate a truce between the warring border communities, reports say heavy smoke has again, started billowing from burning shops and houses in the area, as there is renewed hostility in the place.
Feared dead as a result of the renewed crisis, were three unsuspecting medical students of Ebonyi State University.
The ill-fated students who were said to be of Ukelle, Yala Local Government Area in Cross River State were reportedly returning home, when they were rounded up in a commercial vehicle and killed in cold blood.
Following the development, death toll in the crisis-ravaged area is said to have increased to about 120.
Apart from human casualties, the warfare is said to have also consumed houses, and other property difficult to quantify.
Meanwhile, scores of persons, especially women and children have fled the Ukelle Community in Cross River State, while the situation in the Ebonyi axis of the area, was not yet known as at press time.
Also affected, is Mfuma Community in Cross River State, as the Izzi warlords were said to have advanced into the hinterland of their Ukelle enemies.
Saturday Sun, gathered that Zone 6 Police command in charge of Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi States, has arrested over eight persons from the war scene.
Meanwhile, Cross River State House of Assembly has waded into the matter, calling on the federal government to urgently establish a permanent armed mobile police base in the area, to check further destruction of lives and property.
In a resolution unanimously adopted by the House, the lawmakers told the people of Ebonyi to stop killing their relatives, and enjoined the National Boundary Commission to prevail on Ebonyi State government to respect the existing boundary between the two states.