Iwukem community urges Gov Eno, police to intervene in leadership crises

By Itoro Bassey

Iwukem community in Etim Ekpo local government area of Akwa Ibom State has called on Governor Umo Eno and security agencies to intervene in the lingering leadership crisis rocking the town to forestall looming break down of law and order in the town.

Chairman of Iwukem village council, Chief Innocent Etukuko; Chief Mfon Brown, family head of Nto Udo Ekpo; and Chief Idongesit Udoaka, head of Nto Owo Iko family, made the appeal in an interview with journalists, on Thursday, following a recent crisis in the community which led to the vandalisation of at least four houses and destruction of household items.

They expressed fear that if the government does not intervene, the situation may escalate and may lead to loss of life and property in this border community which shares boundary with Azumini, Abia State.

They also called on the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State to ensure that proper investigations are carried out on petitions before effecting arrest of persons in the village.

“The police have also contributed to this crisis. They are fond of invading this community and arresting people indiscriminately on baseless petition without investigation.

“Every community has leadership, if someone says something happened in a community, we think the police should reach out to the leadership of the community and work with the community to investigate the allegation”, Chief Udoka said.

“The police should not allow anyone to use them to destabilise our community”, Chief Ebong added. We want the State Government to wade into this issue. We have a forum called Iwukem General Assembly comprising all indigenes of this community.

“The forum meets every December. We want the government to come in, meet with the community through the forum, there they will know what the community wants that will help to resolve this crisis” the chiefs said unanimously.

It was gathered that the village head, Eteidung Francis Linus Uyo, fled his own home after it was ransacked by a mob on Saturday 9th September, 2023.

Even the family houses of a respected State High Court Judge, Justice Ntong Ntong, were not spared from the destruction. Aluminium glass windows were destroyed in the houses of the judge, and also that of the village head.

Speaking on the events leading up to the crisis, Chief Etukuko revealed that he and other family heads were in police custody when the incident occurred.

“I am not aware if people’s house were set ablaze because I was not around. I and other family heads were meeting here to mediate in some cases brought to us by our subjects when we were surrounded by policemen and arrested.

“Those who were arrested on that day were Chiefs Mfon Brown, Emmanuel Monday, Celestine Sylvester Ukpong, and I, Chief Innocent Etukuko, together with some youths.

“They handcuffed all the chiefs and the youths that were here, on trump up charges levelled against us by one John Philip Udoaka, a former Secretary of Iwukem village council.

“We were in detention on Saturday and Sunday. We were bailed on Monday. While in detention, the police came and told me that houses have been vandalised and burnt because of the chiefs that were arrested. So I had told them well, I’m here in the cell in your station, so I wouldn’t know what is happening there.
“The said John Phillip Udoaka is the architecture of all the problems in this community. In 2020, John had a problem with the village head which led to the his (village heads) committal at the correctional centre. That’s was why I was appointed the village Chairman.

“When the village came back, the village invited him to respond to some questions bothering on why he was incarcerated. He refused to heed that demand, and that has been a problem.

“In the latest case, John went and told the police that I and Chief Mfon Brown and a list of youths in Iwukem ambushed, beat, stabbed him until he was unconscious. This never happened. His allegations are unsubstantiated.

“This was not the first time he did. In February, he wrote frivolous petition against youth of this community, alleging that they kidnapped one Ubokutom Akpanowo. That made the police to invade the community and arrest many youths.

“So, I should think that the whatever happened was a reaction against the arrest of chiefs and youths because of John’s petition”.

Etukuko added that in February, an assailant attempted to set his house ablaze by dousing it in fuel, but the culprit fled when he noticed someone nearby.

Chiefs Mfon Brown and Idongesit Udoka also expressed their concerns about the activities of the security operatives in the community.

They claimed that various security teams, under the pretense of fighting crime, frequently visited Iwukem to make arrests, a situation he said has left the community members feeling unsettled.

Earlier this year, the treasurer of the Iwukem youths association, Ms. Ndianaobong Gabriel Udoaka, fell victim to an arson attack. Her home, along with all her belongings, was set ablaze by unknown persons.
Ms Udoaka, who conducted journalists around her house said the inferno razed her bed, clothes, dinning table, chairs, dinning set, generator among other things.

“The window was open, so the person set the fire in my house through the window. I was not around. So before I could come back, my house hold items were all gone”, she said.

Indigenes said the root cause of the protracted crisis lied in the village head’s refusal to answer queries from the village council about his arrest and subsequent confinement in a correctional center.

This refusal, it was also gathered, has only served to further exacerbate the tensions within the community.

Mrs. Emem Friday and Madam Idongesit Friday Ntong, two concerned members of the community, shared their harrowing experience of gunshots being fired at their home, saying that the bullets left holes in the zinc roof and shattered the aluminum windows and part of the perimeter fence in the compound.

“They were chanting, ‘give us our chairman’, Madam Ntong said.