Secrets 23 of 1985 promulgated by former President
Ibrahim Babangida to adjust the boundary between
former Cross River and Imo States said to be the cause
of incessant communal clashes in Akwa Ibom and Abia
State.
By Obong Akpaekong

Decree number 23 of 1983, which adjusted the boundary
between former Cross River and Imo States, may have
complicated border problems in Akwa Ibom and Abia
States carved out of the two states. The decree
divided many border villages into two, with one
section in Abia and the other in Akwa Ibom. This also
affected the communities’ shrines, barns and totems

In Ika local government area of Akwa Ibom State,
communities affected by such arrangement include Ikot
Udo Ika, Urua Inyang, Ikot Inwang, Effen Okoro,
Immaman, Ikot Ekong, Ikot Akpan Anwa, Ikot Ikara and
Ikot Uko. Abiaka, in Ibeme community, Azumini and
Iwukem are also well known examples of such
communities in Ukwa East Local Government Area, Abia
State.

The decree compounded the problem of Ikot Udo Ika more
than it did in other villages. Ikot Udo, a once
closely knit family with about 3,000 inhabitants, was
split into two groups. One of the groups is claiming
that its people are indigenous Akwa Ibomites while the
other, a smaller number, insists that they are Igbo.
Although all the people spoke the local Annang dialect
of Akwa Ibom, those who preferred to belong to Abia
adopted “Akirika Obu” as their village name.  But
there is no boundary between the two groups.

With time, some of those claiming Igbo nationality
changed their names to suit their new posture.  They
were said to have preferred being Igbo in protest of
years of neglect by the then Cross River State
administration.

The decree which former president Ibrahim Babangida
promulgated in November 1985 excised the pro-Igbo
side, said to be a third of the entire village into
Imo State, while the rest was to be administrated by
Cross River State. When new local government areas
were created by General Abacha, the Annang went to Ika
local government of Akwa Ibom while the pro-Igbo group
(Akirika Obu) went to Ukwa east local government area.
The promulgation of the decree said to have been
influenced by Paul Omu and Ndubuisi Kanu, former
governors of Cross River and Imo States, predictably,
worsened the rift between the two brethren. There have
been one class after another between the people since
then.

The most destructive of the clashes between them
occurred on February 7, 2000. Over 50 houses were
torched. The houses which included storey buildings,
were infact the best in the locality and belonged to
prominent persons in the community. One of the houses
belonged to E.E. Ekpenyong, former secretary to Cross
River State government. Other include those of Marm
Ichara, a professor of petrochemical engineering and a
former Shell official, Sunday E. Akpan, general
manager in charge of audit in Nigeria Social Insurance
Trust Fund, Abuja, Young Ekpenyong, an avionics
engineer with Nigeria Airways and Samuel Adam, a
retired teacher. The houses of Godwin Nwagbose Nwulu
and Michael Thompson Nwambaha said to be leader of the
pro-Igbo were also burnt.

The incident was triggered off by pro-Igbo youths who
a caterpillar grader operator working on one of the
roads in the village. He was sent to do the job by
Francis Udoikpong, chairman of Ika local government
area. Witnesses said when some youths on the Akwa Ibom
side saw the grader operator attacked, they went to
help him out but were equally attacked.

This led to serious fighting and rioting which
climaxed in sporadic gun fire. The mobile policemen
from Azumini, Abia State, moved in to contain the
situation but they were accused of taking sides with
the pro-Igbo elements. Chrysantus Efep, vice-chairman
of Ika council area, said police in Azumini were used
to intimidating, harassing and arresting the Annang in
Ikot Udo in favour of the pro-Igbo group.

Many people including Jumbo Ukpongette, village head
of Ikot Udo, Ika, and Thompson Abia, a prominent
pastor in the area, were among many the police
arrested. The arrest, burning and looting forced many
families on both sides to seek refuge in neighbouring
villages.

When Newswatch visited Ikot Udo recently, the village
had been largely deserted. The few people around
belonged to the village security team. To them, every
unfamiliar face was a possible enemy. The village hall
located in the centre of the town was used as a base
for the vigilante group. Many of the group’s members
carried locally made rifles. While many others (the
youths) were seen sporting in the bush. They were said
to be waiting for waiting for their enemies. Many
burnt houses dotted the town hall area.

One of them belonged to Sunday Elijah Oyomete,
councilor representing Achan II ward in Ika local
government. Ikot Udo Ika is in the ward. Oyomete told
Newswatch that many pro-Igbo people voted for him
during the elections. It was because of this that the
Ika council area decided to grade the road and do
other things for the people. Those who attacked the
grader said the area was not in the control of Ika but
Ukwa East in Abia State.

Ukpongette, also spoke to Newswatch from his hideout.
He said since the police released him, he had not been
in the house for fear of fresh attack by their
pro-Igbo brothers. He told Newswatch he was happy that
despite all the destruction, no life was lost.

Udoikpong said his belief that the creation of Ika
local government was to bring development to the
people explained why he asked the grader to carry out
the work which unfortunately resulted in the ugly
incident of February 7. Youths in the pro-Igbo side
had attacked the grader operator because, according to
them, the area was not under Ika administration.

Udoikpong said the people were lured by Ukwa East
local government into saying they were not Akwa
Ibomites so as to garner votes from them. He accused
Ukwa council area of trying to annex the area which,
he said, was 60 kilometres from Akwete, Ukwa council
headquarters. Ikot Udo is two kilometres from Urua
Inyang, Ika council headquarters. Udoikpong also
explained that whereas Ikot Udo was one village in
Achan II, a ward of eight villages which Oyemete is
representing, it was a ward in Ukwa East council area.

Another reason he gave for Ukwa East’s interest in
Ikot Udo was the gas deposit Shell was said to have
discovered, in the village. The deposit, he said, was
awaiting exploration. He told Newswatch, “but I will
resist the efforts of anybody who wants to annex Ika
community to Abia” adding “if any of Ikot Udo people
wants to belong to Abia State he should migrate
there”.

Udoikpong said decree 23 of 1985, which put part of
Ikot Udo in Imo and part in Cross River was full of
anomalies which made its full implementation
difficult. He said “Akrika Obu” was merely a
nomenclature given to Ikot Udo by the Igbo for
political reason. He reasoned that Ikot Udo was
surrounded by Ika Annang villages of Ikot Otuko, Ikot
Akpan Offiong, Ikot Inyang Udo, Nto Mfung and Urua
Inyang and did not even share boundary with Ukwa East
local government of Abia State. He called for the
abrogation of decree 23 of 1985.

Over the years, Ika community has been making
representations to the nation’s various boundary
commissions on how to resolve the problem. The bodies
include Irefeke panel (1975), Justice Mamman Nasir
commission (1976), presidential commission (1983) and
the National boundary commission.

In their letter to the chairman, creation of states,
local governments and boundary adjustment committee,
Abuja, dated April 29, 1996, on the issue, they argued
that Ikot Udo had neither cultural nor linguistic
affiliation with Ukwa East. They asked for amendment
of the decree “so that all affected Akwa Ibom villages
erroneously carved into Abia State would be returned”.

The letter signed by 10 persons among them community
leaders also called for return of all venerated areas
carved into Abia State and the return of any part of
Ibeme in Obioma Ngwa local government, that may have
been put in Akwa Ibom.

On August 10, 1999, Ikot Udo Youth Association, wrote
to the chairman of Ukwa East council area on the need
for peaceful co-existence between Ikot Udo people and
Ukwa East. In the letter, they accused some of the
pro-Igbo people of making false claims and presenting
fabricated history to curry favour from Ukwa local
government area. The letter asked why “Akirika Obu”
was the only Ndoki village in Ukwa East council area
speaking Annang dialect. It accused some of them of
dropping their Annang names for Igbo.

Those accused of this included prominent villagers
such as Dick Samuel Essien who allegedly changed to
dick Samuel Nwankwo; James Akpan Abia now known as
James Nna Abia, Michael Ekot now Michael Kalu and
Monday Udo Ekpenyong who answers Monday Ama Kalu. 
Newswatch learnt that the issue of name change is not
new in the Ikot Udo case.

In April 1976, Dick Emuchay, the then chairman of Imo
State public service commission and leader of the
Ndoki people, told the Justice Nasir commission on
Boundary Adjustment that the names of some Annang
people and communities in the then Abak division were
changed during the civil war to suit their
relationship with Igbo.

Emuchay claimed that all the disputed villages were
Igbo and were descendants of the same forbearer,
Eze-Ndoki who, he said, founded the area in the 12
century. His descendants, he claimed, founded Akpala
and Azumini.

But Benson Iyang Udo and Raymond Orok, two Annang
leaders, in their evidence at the commission said
Azumini, originally called “waterside,” was a Cross
River trading post. They claimed that Ikot Udo was one
of Annang villages the Igbo tried to rename Akirika
Obu.

On February 25, 2000, the people of Ikot Udo wrote to
Chris Ekpenyong, Akwa Ibom deputy governor and
chairman of the state’s boundary committee, asking him
to assist in resolving the boundary crisis. Their
requests included abrogation of Decree 23 of 1985,
allowing the whole of Ikot Udo/Akirika Obu to remain
in Ika, bringing pressure on the federal government to
release a white paper on the 1997 boundary adjustment
commission R.D. Mohammed. The letter, signed by
Oyomete and nine other leaders of the villages asked
for a re-establishment of a police station in Ikot Udo
and a federal government’s involvement in
infrastructural development of the village to
discourage the people from political harlotry.

The village also sent a save-our-soul letter to Akwa
Ibom State government, February 10, asking it to
prevail on the federal government to send neutral
policemen to the police station in Azumini, as well as
send relief packages to those badly affected by the
February 7, incident.

Ekpenyong, who was visited the community after the
incident, condemned the wanton destruction of property
in the village and appealed to the youths on both
sides not to act in a way that will inflict more pains
and injuries on the people. He asked the federal
government to consider all cultural, historical and
political antecedents before taking a decision
affecting Akwa Ibom and other states.

Others who visited the village since the incident
include Akwa Ibom indigenes in the national assembly
and A.A.Oyakhire, assistant inspector-general of
police, AIG, in charge of zone 6.

Various steps have been taken to resolve the Ikot Udo
conflict over the years. In 1994, Yakubu Bako, Temi
Ejoor and Gregory Agboneni, then military
administrators of Akwa Ibom, Abia and Cross River
States well as top officials of the national boundary
commission met in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, to
find a lasting solution to the problem.

Successive chairmen of Ika and Ukwa East have also
been working together to resolve the crisis.  On July
30, 1999, Ukwa council chairman visited Urua Inyang to
hold discussions with his Ika counterpart on how to
end the conflict. But also their efforts seem to have
once to naught as hostilities continues in the area.



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