Mbiabong Ikot Antem: Inside story of how armed criminals terrorise Uyo Community
Inside story of how armed criminals terrorise Uyo Community
By Itoro Bassey
A notorious young man identified only as Kufre, also known as Scorpion, is one of the suspected criminals who have been terrorising Mbiabong Ikot Antem Community in Etoi, Uyo Local Government Area, for years.
But, Scorpion was unlucky on Saturday, October 8, 2022. He was apprehended for stealing iron rods used for tank stands by a group of local security operatives in Nyan Estate, a section of Mbiabong Ikot Antem Village, and he was subsequently handed over to the police at A Division, Shelter Afrique.
Before Scorpion’s arrest, the local chief security officer of Nyan Estate, Mr. David David, who spoke to The Crest, penultimate week, said the suspect had been a recurrent criminal within the community and its environs.
According to David, Scorpion organized and stole a water tank in an uncompleted storey building site and some bags of cement he buried under a heap of sharp sand after which he would collect them at the close of work at the site in the evening. Not only that, Scorpion was also said to have been the brain behind the stealing of iron classroom doors at Etoi Secondary School sometime ago.
Asked further on how Scorpion had been evading arrest in the past, David revealed that he would abscond from the community after committing a crime only to return several months after the matter would have been forgotten by his victims.
To many residents of Nyan Estate and Mbiabong Ikot Antem Village, these armed criminals are better imagined than having them visit their homes. The Crest newspaper gathered at the weekend that not all the robbers were born in the village, nor do they live there. But they are regular guests of the residents of this area at night.
They are said to be the criminals who have terrorised residents of this community for a long period, breaking into flats at the dead of the night, helping themselves with their victims’ food, collecting jewelleries, packing clothes, shoes, electronics, money and other valuables.
Meanwhile, the local security men of Nyan Estate, especially, would have none of the activities of the criminals going on there anymore, as they have sprung up to fill the void left by insufficient policing and threats to their community by armed gangs.
On Saturday, October 22, Mr David, the CSO of Nyan Estate, showed The Crest reporter videos of some men who, upon their arrest by the community’s Vigilante Group, gave their names as Ubong-Abasi James John from Ikot Imo, Nsit Ubium LGA; Esit-ime Edet Essien from Ikot Nkim, Ibesikpo Asutan LGA; Samuel Ukeme Ita, a native of Mbiabong Ikot Antem; Salas Bassey Edet, Faith Edet Ita, and Emmauel a.k.a Ntiang Nkwong.
David said they were all picked up one after the other at different times and handed over to the police at Shelter Afrique Estate, after a long period of painstaking investigation and rigorous questioning by his team.
From the questioning are responses observed by this reporter in the video, it was gathered that Ubong-Abasi James John had been stealing iron protectors in the community, and he had been caught earlier, stealing a GP water tank.
“Ubon-Abasi was also caught breaking into people’s shops. On the day he was apprehended in someone’s shop, our security men took him to his father. The man who wept, following the incident, showed us food stuff in his house, saying that his son’s attitude was not as a result of hunger”, David said.
From his own confessional statement, it was discovered that Esit-ime Edet Essien lived with Ubong-Abasi, his friend, in the same room because his parents were separated. The duo were caught with a heavy duty alternator. Esit-ime said he was invited by his friend to assist in carrying the stolen alternator at the time they were caught.
Silas Bassey Edet, one of the arrested suspects, was said to be a specialist in using master keys to open doors in people’s houses when the owners are not around, while Faith Edet Ita said he resorted to stealing because of hunger. The vigilante men said Saviour and Ukeme Ita kept engaging in petty crimes until they were caught.
Another notorious robber in the video who pleaded with his captors to forgive and set him free was Emmauel, a.k.a Ntinang ye Nkwong, who was apprehended for regularly stealing yams from someone’s farm and chicken to eat as food.
Emmanuel, this reporter gathered, would professionally harvest yams from a farm underneath the soil without the owner knowing. And he would, after this, prepare pounded-yam food and steal someone’s chicken to make white soup.
When the matter became known and unbearable, the security men waited in an ambush for Emmanuel, but missed could not lay hold of him. They (security) later received a tip-off about him (Emmanuel) eating pounded-yam with his family everyday.
He was however caught and taken to the farm where he showed the security men how he had been criminally harvesting the yams he had been eating with his family.
As Emmanuel was being taken away, his wife begged for mercy and pardon; while his five children joined in crying for him to be set free. He was set free as the result of the plea, however, and his matter was reported to the village council who, in turn, asked him to quit the community.
When the Mbiabong Ikot Antem Village Council Chairman, Mr Ndipmong Ekpe, eventually spoke to this reporter on Sunday, after several unsuccessful attempts to get reactions from the village, he said the community is relatively calm now and conducive for the residents.
“God has given us the grace to see that the community is calm and conducive for our people to live. We have, through our community policing efforts, rescued residents from robbery attacks. And we apprehended criminals and handed them over to the police immediately”, Ekpe said.
He added that the community would appreciate if the government constructs roads in the community so that the police could easily access the area anytime distress calls are sent to them.
Also adding his voice to the achievements in the area of security management of the village, Mr. Ekpenyong Ekpenyong, the community policing head of the area, said:
“To say the truth, we have arrested more than twenty suspected criminals in the community in the past years and successfully delivered them to the police. Out of that number, we have followed up and about fifteen of them have been taken to court. We have succeeded in these cases.
“As of today, most of them are in prison custody based on the gravity of their offences. What we’re doing in Mbiabong is out of passion for our people. And we’re discouraging crime and criminality through our community policing efforts”.
When contacted on Saturday, the Police Public Relations Officer in Akwa Ibom State, Odiko MacDon, said the police were very much aware of the contribution of vigilante groups in ensuring the safety and security of communities in the state.
MacDon, a Superintendent of Police, who noted that the prosecuting powers for suspected criminals still lies with the police, urged community policing teams to continue with the good work they have been doing.
He urged vigilante groups not to take laws into their hands or detain any suspects in their custody, adding that they should hand over any suspect arrested immediately to the nearest police station.
SP Macdon, therefore, urged all the vigilante groups working in the state to keep providing useful information to the police when necessary.
