RE: PRESS STATEMENT
CONSISTENT FALSEHOOD BY THE IBENO REFUGEE SETTLERS ON EKID AND ONNA LANDS; TIME TO PUT THE RECORDS STRAIGHT

IBENO’S RESPONSE!

After our long laugh at the so called Press Release which was issued about a week ago, supposedly by the Ekid people of Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State, we have decided that, perhaps for the purposes of enlightening the unwary members of the public, it is better, after thoroughly relishing the frantic but failed display, to put history in its proper perspective, even though we know that it may never deter the Ekids completely from their continuous skittish behaviour of the ages.
i) First of all, it did not escape our notice that the so called press release was purported to be issued by the Ekids of Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas, but the said press release was very curiously signed by a single person who put his name as Manfred Ekpe, Esq. at the end of the statement. The Ekids have always displayed absurdities in the past, but this particular episode appears to be legendary and somehow unco by the level which it has been elevated.
ii) Second of all, but taking from the above observation, it is no wonder that most of the supposed facts which the poor fated press release claimed to assail were not more than mere childish tantrums; and if any more could be added, it would be to say that they were based on delusion heightened to the level of melodramatic grandeur.
iii) Third of all, we found that, apart from the position being juncacious, haphazard and wonky, the narrative was riddled with concocted falsehoods, unsurported stories, wild suppositions, disjointed logicism, anachronistic fiascos and brazen carelessness. For the whole of Ekets to align with such unprofessional material shows the level of decadence bedevilling that society.
iv) Fourth of all, our forefathers bore the malicious, mischievous and misleading tales coming from the Ekets with dignity because they believed that they were noble people, and tolerance was the hallmark of nobility. Here is what the chiefs of Ibeno wrote in the past: “Naturally, our attitude towards the few ill-intentioned Eket people (for we strongly believe there are the vast progressive Eket people who have departed from the past and are very friendly with the Ibeno people) when it comes to their insatiable expansionist and land grabbing tendency over Ibeno territory has always been to ignore their tantrums, having come to terms with the fact noble people would always have some thorns in their flesh”. We wish to depart a little from the paths of our forebears, at least, to the extent that these continuous lies are not allowed to persist unreplied any longer.

Although we may not be able to match the level of unecessary ascerbity and vitrolic disrespect recklessly displayed in that press material, we hereupon set to reply all the lies and concocted stories seriatim:

1.To begin with, though the Ekets have been making spurious claims to the ownership of the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve, the fact remains that they are not the owners. The claim that there are colonial records available to support their story is laughable at the very best because those available records in essence work hardship against their claims. The Stubb Creek Reserve was created under the Forestry Ordinance, 1930, and amended by the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve Ordinance of 1955. The boundaries showing the entire areas of the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve, about one hundred and twenty square miles or thereabouts, are clearly delineated with about thirty (30) Beacon stones, marked all the way from Upenekang to Esuk Nne Ntete, variously called Inua Abasi or Childs Point in Ibeno, bordering on Edor in Esit Eket Local Government Area and leading to Jamestown in Mbo Local Government Area. All this area is called Odorokuku in Ibeno, covering both Akpa Urua Ikot and Akpa Nsung. The meaning of Akpa Urua Ikot and Akpa Nsung, how these places gained their names and statuses, are not to be revealed in this rejoinder; they are known only to Ibeno, who are the owners of the land.

2. From the days of Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, to South Eastern Agricultural Development Corporation until today, the successive governments have always recognised Ibeno as the true owners of the lands which formed this Reserve and all the royalties have been paid to Ibeno. Only a minor part of Edor land is included in the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve and this is reflected in the negligible amount which they received as royalties from E. N. D. C. from about 1958. The people of Ibeno have been on the land from time immemorial and have been receiving rents on the land to the exclusion of the Ekets.
In the 1958-1959 financial year, a whooping £261.00 was paid as royalties accruing from the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve to Ibeno locality from E.N.D.C Sub-Treasury, Enugu. £ 2.00 only was paid to Uquo locality, while £2.1 was paid to Ibaka locality.
In the 1962-63 financial year, £108.7 was paid to Ibeno as royalties from the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve
In the 1963-1964 financial year, £134.17 was paid as royalties accruing from the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve to Ibeno. Usuk Effiat received £1.63. Nothing was paid to Uquo.
In the 1964-1965 financial year, Ibeno received £126.16 as royalties. Usuk Effiat was paid £. 3.

3. Never was Eket paid even one Penny in all of these years, yet they have continued to lay claim, albeit falsely, to the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve. Government has always known who are the real owners of the land. Eket have been hanging hopefully to the believe that perhaps if they continued to tell these false tales, over many years, they may become believable. That is unfortunate!
We have witnessed on several occasions the manipulative, divisive, crafty, insufferable and over grasping machinations of the Ekets over the ages. We have always been consoled that if Satan could fight against the Hosts of Angels in heaven; if Satan could use the word of God to attempt to defeat the word of God, then who are we!

4. In all of their unceremonious and cocky attitudes, what the Ekets have failed to understand is that Providence is insuperable! Otherwise, how else could anyone explain that the land that the Ekets are struggling to take have a natural demarcation. At Adida Edor, where Ibeno used to conduct trade by barter with Esit Eket, there is a natural boundary set between Adida bridge (the trade by barter point) and Ibeno. The soil in Eket is black head, while the soil in Ibeno is white, alluvial and sandy, the kind found only in Ibeno and nowhere else. There is a clear and sharp division on the land: the part belonging to Ibeno is all white, glassy sand which lacerate into wavy dunes as the breeze wafts across it.

5.The people of Eket have continued to hang feverishly on to a Privy Council judgment of 1918 to lay claims to the ownership of Ibeno land. Curiously however, the same judgment was varied by both the West African Court of Appeal and the Joint Committee of the Privy Council sitting in London. This is what the Joint Committee of the Privy Council, the final Court of Appeal as at then, said of the purported declaratory decision of the Privy Council: "When the matter came before the Court of Appeal the Court varied this judgment; BY DELETING THE CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH OF THE SAID JUDGMENT( emphasis ours), and their Lordships are of opinion, not merely by inspecting the records which has been sent over, but from the structure of Mr. Justice Webber's judgment, that what the Court of Appeal calls the " concluding paragraph " in its order as drawn up, is the whole of the passage which begins by saying that by this judgment he granted a declaration of title, and so on, down to the end of the judgment. THAT PASSAGE WAS SUPERFLUOUS BECAUSE, AS THE PLEADINGS SHOWED, NO DECLARATION OF TITLE HAD BEEN ASKED FOR BY THE EKETS (again emphasis ours). There was no reason for giving them a declaration which they had not prayed for, and, as to the remainder of the passage, it was, in the opinion of the Court of Appeal, RATHER AND (sic) EXPRESSION OF OPINION THAN A DEFINITION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE TWO DEFENDANTS AS REGARDS ONE ANOTHER.” The two defendants here referred were Upenekang and Eket; never Eket alone. Eket only applied to join the matter as joint defendants.

6.The people of Eket have hopelessly revisited this judgment in all their claims, not minding that their Lordships at both the West African Court of Appeal and Joint Committee of the Privy Council sitting then in London sufficiently pilloried and reprimanded the Hon. Justice Webber before EXPUNGING ( yes, for that is the word used by the Joint Committee of the Privy Council ) his inglorious opinion superfused in his judgment to the horror of known legal principles; they have even erroneously said that the Privy Council was the highest court in the world. How desperate. How naive.

The High Court sitting in Calabar in Suit No C/43/71 also deprecated the people of Eket over the same Privy Council case when His Lordship then said, while delivering his judgment in dismissing the suit in1980, and rightly so:
“This part of the judgment was also quoted by their Lordships of the Privy Council in their judgment dismissing the appeal lodged by the Plaintiffs. But it was regarded as a DEAD WOOD and was lopped off from the rest of the judgment because it gave what the defendants never claimed. So that the final decision in this case declared no title to either party” Kodilinye v Mbanefo Odu 2 W.A.C.A.336 at P337. (all emphasis are ours) "The Plaintiffs had not proved their case in terms of their writ to warrant the declaration they seek. The judgment of this Court is that this action stands dismissed in all the claims and is hereby dismissed.
“I assess costs in favour of the Defendants at N250” Per Justice D. A. ENO, 17th November, 1980.

7. At no time has any court given judgment in favour of the Ekets concerning the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve or any lands thereabouts, and there are certainly no plethora of authorities. Instead, it is the people of Eket that have been heading to the Court of Appeal in all these years down even till today, including the most recent matter lying still at the Court of Appeal, Calabar. It will take a psychotic schizophrenic, suffering from egomaniacal paranoia, to continue to make reference to a court judgment which was so obviously pooh-poohed by a superior court as their Lordships did at the Joint Committee of the Privy Council to Hon. Justice Webber being referred by the Ekets. We suspect somehow that this condition of mind is not among the Ekets but we are hard put to explain otherwise.

8. We repeat, with a stern visage to the whole world that, the Ekets have never defeated Ibeno in any land matters, can never defeat and will never defeat Ibeno in any matter concerning the Stubb Creek Forest. Their historical facts are too loose and too uncoordinated to sustain even a ruling of the court, not to mention a full judgment of court; their acts are too ramshackle and too jumbled up to be taken seriously by any court of law. Eket may continue to win cases and claim customary ownership on the pages of newspapers upon lands whose root title they cannot conclusively or coherently trace. If that gives them satisfaction then Ibeno will not be bothered. As the Chairman of an Arbitration Committee once said in 1955, if Ibeno knew the value of their lands, all of this theatrical concerts might not have been.
We will go back to what the Hon. Justice Webber said concerning Eket in that same judgment when we trace the real history of the Ekets in subsequent paragraphs.

9. Ibeno has a rich, well articulated and enviable history. The ancestry of Ibeno is solidly traced to the migratory movement of the Obolos from around the Cameroons with their first homeland established around the Rio Del Rey. This movement is believed to have taken place between 800-1200 AD. We are a distinguished, perculiar and indomitable seafarers who journeyed through tortuous sea routes and settled down finally on the West Coast African Sub Region, Eastern Niger Delta on the Gulf of Guinea along the Atlantic Ocean between Cross River through Qua Iboe River and Bonny River/ Andoni. Ibeno, in fact, Obolos generally were the first settlers in the Eastern Niger Delta. Historians such as Ikuru, 1953, Jeffreys, 1931, Jones, 1963, Anene, 1966, Prof Uya, 1984, Ejituwu,1991 all stated these facts in their books which enjoy world acclaim.

We do not make banal allusion to unidentified anthropological findings which cannot be produced when challenged. Eket in their Press Release claimed to have been there 10,000 years before Jesus Christ. What an anachronistic blubbering blunder from a people whom nearly all historians from Goldie, who wrote the first Efik dictionary, have agreed were dissidents who left Ibeno between 1701 and 1708 to settle at their present abode. The movement of the people of Eket out of Ibeno occured during the Nna Biget war which took place in 1701. These people, described by various historians and the older generation of Ibeno folks as dissidents of the Nna Biget war, were led northwards by one Okpo Eti, who was their oldest progenitor, and first settled at Effoi from where they spread into the first nine sub-clans. Here is how William D. Spence, Acting District Officer, who was asked by the Resident, Mr. G. H. Findlay, to carry out intelligent investigation on how best to establish the Native Administration, captured the history of Ekets in his Report on the Eket Clan, dated March, 1931:
“Throughout the investigation it was found that the people of Eket were rather reticent on the subject of their early history, not so much due to the fact that they were ignorant of it as to suspicion of the reasons for the enquiries. It is probable that as they are now a well-defined and solid unit they do not wish to be associated with the clan of their origin and perhaps be grouped with it for Native Administration purposes.”
The clan of their origin here referred is none other than Ibeno. As Spence stated further in his Report :
“ The majority of the people admitted that their ancestors came from Ibeno many years ago. Their story begins with a civil war in Ibeno, a war which they called Nna. During this war many people were driven out of Ibeno and their only avenue of escape was to the North. The refugees, led by a man known as Okpo Eti, fled to the North and settled in the country now occupied by the Eket Clan.”

11. To give further credence to this rather lucid and explicit history, one would have to take a look at the worship style of the early Ekets, up to 1887 when Rev. S. A. Bill came into Ibeno with the whiteman’s religion, the Qua Iboe Mission (Qua Iboe Church, the first Church in Akwa Ibom State). It was not denied at any time by the comparatively new settlers that their religion was rooted in the worship of Ndem then called Abasi Ibeno. On page 5 of Spence’s Report, he said, and we reproduce:

“ The theory that the Ekets originated from Ibeno receives corroboration from the Religion of the Clan. Many of the towns, especially the Afaha and Etebi sub-clans, when questioned on the subject of their Ndems, gave the name of Abasi Ibeno as the greatest. They said that Abasi Ibeno was the “mother of all other Ndems” and lived in the sea at Ibeno, and that many years ago they used to go to the sea every year to sacrifice at the shrine of this Ndem.”

12. In 1936, precisely on the 3rd April, while writing to The Honorable Secretary, Southern Province at Enugu, H.P. James, Acting Resident, Calabar, made the following remarks about the Eket Clan:
“The Eket Clan occupy an area of 70 sq. miles extending eastwards from the left bank of the Qua Iboe River between Eket Station and the sea until the the territory of the neighbouring Oron Clan is reached. They are bounded on the north by the Ibibio Clan of Ubium and Western Nsit, and on the South by the Ibeno Clan, from whom they are said to have ORIGINATED. The population is estimated at 20,000 with an average density of 286 to the sq. mile. They speak a language of their own which is similar to Ibibio but with traces of their IBENO EXTRACTION.” All emphasis ours.

13. For all the years, there was never any information on the history of the Ekets, because they deliberately refused to supply same; not because they didn't know but because they were careful not to allow people to know about their true origin, which by the way, is directly traced to Ibeno. When you take a cursory look at Eket Websites, all you would see was that the Ekets came from Cameroon during the great Bantu movement. No historian anywhere in all the ages has supported or corroborated this dreamy claim. Even the Ekets themselves did not supply where they landed, who landed with them, who settled first and where, etc. It is a claim as banal and as laughable as anything that is laughable!
M. D. W.Jeffreys, historian and District Officer in Eket, in his Report on the Tribes and Clans in the Eket District, 1925, wrote thus:
“ The Ekets and the Okpo Ekets (Okpo Ekets being an eponym that obviously corroborates the Okpo Eti story) both claim to have Abasi Ibeno as their Ndem. This Okpo Ekets explain their possession of the same Ndem as the Ibeno on the grounds that they went to war with the Ibenos….
At first sight, it might appear difficult to account for the Ekets having the same Ndem as the Ibenos. Two plausible hypotheses present themselves for investigation.
1) that the Ekets made an alliance with the Ibenos and to cement it shared their Ndem or presiding spirit
2) that the Ekets are derived from Ibenos.”

14. Suffice it to further state that, even Hon. Webber, in his Privy Council judgment, which is curiously celebrated and always feverishly quoted by the Ekets, supported this fact when he said, in his opinion, that the Ekets appeared to have been paying tributes, including manilla, wine and goats, to their Ibeno overlords only to the extent that they would be allowed to participate in the worship of Abasi Ibeno - the only god they revered most.
15. Here is what Justice Webber said in part of his Privy Council judgment and we take time to reproduce same verbatim:
“Secondly, as to the swamp and creeks and streams. Most of these creeks and streams are tidal and the Ibeno women have always fished there. The evidence does not show that these creeks and streams belong exclusively to any particular people.
“ The swamp has not been used by the Uben Ekang people for fishing. They may have gone there to cut sticks & co. but there is no evidence of their having fished there. Nor with the exception of the 3 huts found by the Surveryor, has there been any evidence given by the Mkpanaks of actual fishing in these swamps. THE EVIDENCE OF OWNERSHIP WAS CONFINED TO THE PAYMENT OF WHAT THE WITNESSES CALLED TRIBUTE BY THE EKETS. I AM QUITE SATISFIED THAT THE GIFTS BY THE EKET WERE NOT PAYMENT FOR USING THE SWAMP BUT USUAL GIFTS BY THE EKETS MADE IN THEIR SACRIFICES TO THE ABASI IBENO JUJU WHICH WAS A JUJU IN THE SACRIFICES OF WHICH THE EKETS APPEAR TO HAVE PARTICIPATED.” Emphasis ours.
How did Hon. Justice Webber come to such a conclusion except his position was a matter for common knowledge at that time? Why did the Ekets give to Ibeno the “usual gifts” as described by Justice Webber? Of course, no Eket man in all the years saw anything amiss in Webber’s conclusion, because it was mostly true to the extent that Ekets were coming to worship Abasi Ibeno every December, until that practice became moribund when S.A.Bill arrived Ibeno in 1887. Most importantly, the witnesses which Webber referred to in his judgment were Eket indigenes who testified in favour of Ibeno.
There is no end to the authorities which we are able to produce on this subject of taboo and trepidation among the Ekets. The Ekets have been desperate to erase this history from time, but that is understandable because they left Ibeno in a disgraceful manner and would rather that such story was left untold. Therein lies the real ancient animosity between Ibeno and the Ekets.

16. In the Press Release, Ekets said in paragraph 11, “ in 1910 just 20 years after the Ibeno had stopped paying land rent to Ekid…” This statement is not only funny it is also lacking in logic. Ibeno has never paid rent to Eket. Instead, it was the other way round. About six indigenes of Eket testified in favour of Ibeno at the Privy Council sitting then in Calabar that they saw their fathers pay tributes of manilla and gin to their Ibeno overlords in order to fish in the ponds at Ibeno ancestral lands. It was these testimonies that Justice Webber twisted to mean that the tributes were paid to allow those Eket people enter and worship Abasi Ibeno. Assuming but not conceding the reason given by Justice Webber for those payments, the questions still arise: if the Ekids were worshipping Abasi Ibeno and paid tributes to do so, who potented over who? If Ibeno had just stopped paying rent to Ekid would they so soon be fighting over the same land? Common sense advises one to laugh at such illogical display than to pay it serious heed.

17. The Ekets claim that an Ibeno man, Late HRM Owong Barr. Akpanika Ukot, tricked Esuene, an Eket man who was the military Governor of South Eastern State into signing an Edict in 1978 listing the Stubb Creek under Ibeno. Is this the same Stubb Creek that Ibeno had been earning royalties since 1950s or another one? Again, is it the same Esuene who signed a lease between South Eastern State, Ibeno and Mobil Producing Nigeria in May,1970? The attempt to erase anything that links Ibeno with the Ekids was taken to the bizarre two weeks ago when Eket commemorated the 85th posthumous birthday of the late Brig. U.J. Esuene. While writing about the educational background of the late Military Governor, the writer carefully avoided to mention his primary school education, the reason being that, the late Esuene attended Ibeno Central School, a most prestigious school and the only primary school with full boarding facilities in those days. The writer claimed that Esuene’s education began at the prestigious Etinan Institute, a school that had only the secondary section. Apart from the Late Esuene, Late Senator Etang Edet Umoyo was also trained in Ibeno. O. J. Asubop was trained in Ibeno, and many more of the early prominent men in Eket, including even the present Paramount Ruler of Eket, HRM. E. C. D. Abia.

18. There are obvious discordant stories in the Press Release; some would even torpedo the others and so we do not bother to react to them as many discerning minds can decipher facts from fictions/fables any day. But perhaps, we should react to the concocted tales concerning the Apata Commission of Enquiry which was set up by General Babangida in 1993, after the communal crisis between Ekid and Ibeno over Ibeno ancestral lands.
One particular take home from that tribunal was when Justice Ephraim Apata asked the Ekets to give their history. Barr. Assam Assam, as he then was, told the Chairman of the commission that the Eket have no history; that the only history of the Ekets is that one man and a woman came out of a hole at Afaha Eket junction. Of course, this ridiculous story received the raucous guffaw from the entire people in attendance at the tribunal. Today, someone who was not more than a mere toddler at that time has tried to reconstruct the history of Ekets better than Barr. Assam Assam could in 1993.

19. Ridiculous as that story was, one must say that it did not originate from Barr. Assam Assam, SAN, as he now is. In 1931 when William D. Spence was conducting his studies to aid the establishment of Native Administration in Eket, while asking questions concerning the origin of the people of Eket, though many elderly Ekid folks confessed to him that they came from Ibeno, one Ehoho Eket, who later became the first clan head and Pramount Ruler of Eket at about 1933 refused to admit his Ibeno ancestry to Mr. Spence. He, Edohoeket, it was who first told Mr. Spence, Cadet and Acting District Officer (then popularly called D.Os) that his forebears emerged from the ground.

20. Here is how Spence reacted to that ludicrous claim on page 6 of his Report:
“There were only four towns at which this theory (that they emanated from Ibeno) or part of it, was not confirmed. The people of Afaha Eket and Esit Urua denied that they came from Ibeno and said that they were in the country long before the Ibenos came. They said that there was a legend about their origin, that a man and woman came out of a deep pit near Afaha Eket and founded the Eket Clan. The pit was quite close to Afaha Eket and is still pointed out by the people.

Therein lies the real source of distaste for Ibeno by the Ekets which has been passed down, so much that many young generations of Ekets are sysmatically groomed and methodically programmed to hate Ibeno by telling them false tales yet carefully diminishing the real grouse deeply rooted in the disgust of that dissident movement, and these have brought about the seeming generational hatred.
Of course, these incongruous and absurd stories of folks emanating from the pit may have tickled the risible faculties of those simpletons who told and believed in them, but to well thinking people, it was only a pointer to how evasive and furtive the Ekets could be when faced with the truth which they considered disadvantageous to them.
Whether the White Paper from that Commission came out or not, (it actually never saw the light of day) the Abacha administration wasted no time to convey on Ibeno a Local government status. So much for the Apata Commission.

21. On the issue concerning King Jaja of Opobo and the war with the people of Ibeno, we will begin by questioning the hardihood to report a war which the Ekets never experienced. In fact, apart from puerile intra-strives and petty tiffs among themselves as recorded by both G.I. Jones and Spence, the Ekids never fought any war. On the other hand, Ibeno fought against Nna Biget (Abiget was his real name but the Europeans called it Biget) in 1701-1708. They also fought against King Jaja of Opobo in a war which began on Monday,11 April, 1881, and lasted till about 1887 when Jaja himself was captured and taken captive by the Europeans who claimed that he was the master of juju which he applied to dissuade people from obeying the colonial masters. A few weeks ago the Chairman of Esit Eket even claimed that Ibeno first came to our abode during the Jaja war when they were removed from Andoni. That story is so poor that history would recoil on behalf of the fortunate young Chairman.

22.How dare the Ekets describe the people who fought wars with the greatest of Emperors as weak! There is no way Ibeno would have signed any agreement with King Jaja when Ibeno was already declared a Protectorate of the British Empire as at 1880 by the friendship and business agreement with George Watts which began since about 1871. In fact, it was the trade agreement that remotely led to the war between Ibeno and King Jaja. No historian, not even Talbot would have written anything disrespectful of the great Ibeno people, who resisted even the much dreaded Jaja of Opobo! This is how a historian captured the event of April, 1881:
“ Jaja first attempted to cajole the people of Ibeno into boycotting Watts, but was unsuccessful, so he quietly prepared a well armed expedition and sent it off, attacking the slumbering Ibeno villages, which were burned. Many people were slain, and altogether about 200 Ibenos lost their lives or were captured and taken to Opobo.
Watts who was in England at the time, made representations to the Foreign Office, and his Agents on the coast did likewise to the Consul, with the result that qua Iboe was taken under British protection, and Jaja was told to leave the people alone.”

23. It is obvious that the writer of that mischievous, malnourished and misinformed story did not know that Jaja came and went from Ibeno several times within seven years from 1881. But then, no one expects a people who were only crude and rudy at the time to know much.
Ibeno do not deny that the Nna Bigets war affected the growth and wellbeing of Ibeno, and that the King Jaja war nailed the coffin that saw the reduction of Ibeno as a people. First, the dissidents, the Ekets, left Ibeno during Nna Bigets war, but it was the Jaja war that saw to most people fleeing Ibeno into far flung places in the hinterlands, and these people who fled formed many of the villages today. Places like Ebana, Ede Obuk, Effoi, Ekpene Obo, Mbiokporo, Ndiya, Ekpene Ukpa, Ibekwe, Igwe, Ikot Akpatek etc., received Ibeno people who fled. In Afaha Offiong, there is still Ekpuk Abasi Ibeno to this day.

24. Of particular note is the story of Esit Urua. Truth is that before 1881, there was no place known as Esit Urua. Ibeno had the entire span of lands up to Nnicha or Mile 6 as we then called it, and which the Esit Urua people now call Nditia. Facts are sacred. Up till when S.A. Bill arrived, and when he attempted to take the Gospel to the hinterlands, it was the people of Ibeno who cleared and maintained the road all the way to Nnicha to enable the revered white Christian have free course. The remains of an Ibeno man, Martin, are still buried today at Nnicha where he died out of an accident while building a ford to enable the Reverend S.A. Bill cross over towards Eket as he took the gospel to the hinterlands. Besides, even today, there is no ceremonial activities in Esit Urua that Okoroutip members, the extraction of Okuluo Ipekwe and Adiakot, would not be invited. Among all Eket land the history is sacred. They own up to these facts in general and only deny them when they are on their insatiable quest for Ibeno land. In other words, what we state here is a matter of common knowledge.
Yes, when the Ekets say that many people bolted into the forest during this war, they inadvertently ratified the fact that those people formed most of the new settlements which emerged after 1881 because many Ibeno people who left Ibeno during that war never returned. There are too many living witnesses today, most who have confessed to being the grandchildren of these brave Ibeno people.

25. Another desperation was betrayed when, in the attempt to portray the Ekets as brave people, the Press Release acknowledged that the Ekets are indeed Ibibios. Being written by a small boy and budding lawyer, the writer obviously did not avert his mind to the fact that the Ekets have been denying Ibibio status or Ibibio identity for very many years. The Ekets have over the years been describing the Ibibios in very derogatory terms as Nsit ibi Ekpuh, literally meaning the Ibibio people who are masquerades or ghosts: a very demeaning way for an Eket man to describe anyone whom he considers unfit for his honour; and whom he considers only fit for his measure of scorn, opprobium and ignominy. What somehow disturbs the mind is how suddenly the Ekets have stooped to accept Ibibio heritage or origin just so they may appear as a strong people. When A.C. Douglas described the Ekets as the wild Ibibios, it must have sounded more like a spiteful disgrace and a grim reminder to their forefather’s cultural intolerance, mutual exclusivity and antagonistic tendency to neighbours. And this reminds one of what a prominent Eket son, a professor of English language at the University of Calabar, Prof Ikoiwak, wrote in his published work: that an Eket man is contemptuous of his neighbours. This is actually the true disposition of a typical Eket man!

26. Truth be told, there is not so much for the Eket man to cherish concerning their rather chequered history with Ibeno. Many of the people whom we have mentioned above did not just visit Ibeno to attend schools, they were children and grandchildren of men who served the fearsome and stately Ibeno men of old. As fishermen who spent long hours of the day navigating the Atlantic with brute strength and sheer wisdom, long before outboard engines were accessible, our forefathers needed helpers to assist them in the course of their occupation. These helpers were mostly from Eket and they were called ‘firemen’, or ‘Ete fire’, because their jobs consisted of drying the fish for those Ibeno fishermen. Others among them were hired because they were dexterous in the art of weaving large fishing trawls which were used by the fishermen as locally made fish trawling devices. Ibeno calls these locally made trawlers Nnyuma. Even to this day, many such men abound in Ibeno- and they are still largely Eket people. We can state for a fact that someone like Elder O.J. Asubop, one of the fiercest living Ibeno persecutors, lived and grew up with his father who was one of such dexterous and gifted men in Ibeno. There is dignity in labour, but why the Ekets feel abashed and mortified over the labourer status of their forefathers at Ibeno is entirely known only to them.

27. We wish to state that Ibeno will not go into a war of words with Ekets. A landlord does not make noise, it is the tenant that shouts, for perhaps, if by so doing they would find help. The people of Eket have been making noise about the land from time, but that noise has not achieved nix for them, and will not. They wrote copious letters to the successive Residents in Calabar protesting over the land, but all such letters availed nothing because they lacked substance. They have continued to write letters with no solid arguments or facts to back up their claims.

28.One of such numerous convoluted and preposterous claims received the repudiation of the Acting District Officer in September,1937. In a letter written by the Acting District Officer, Eket, with Ref. No. 444/117/338, dated 1/9/37, being a briefing to the Senior Resident, Calabar Province, Calabar, the D.O. stated and we reproduce in part, thus:
“The petition reiterates the usual grievances against the constitution of the Forest Reserve, but its real point is that the Uquo Clan strongly objects to the request of the Eket Clan Council that the Reserve should be handed over to the Native Administration. This objection is, I am afraid, based upon a complete misconception of what is involved in the handing over of the Reserve to the Native Administration, and has arisen out of a misinformed understanding of the petition of Eket Clan Council forwarded under cover of my letter No. 641/117/335 of 19.7.37 which is conceived to be a claim by Eket to the land in the Reserve. The Uquo Council theoritical subscribed to this petition, but I find that only 5 of its 19 signatories are Uquo chiefs.
“ I have explained to the Uquo Council what is involved in the Eket Clan’s petition, but they still wish to register their objection to the proposal of handing over the Reserve to the Native Administration by means of the attached petition, AND TAKE THE SOMEWHAT EXTRAVAGANT COURSE OF LAYING CLAIM TO THE WHOLE RESERVE, AND STATING THAT NO EKET TOWNS HAVE ANY CLAIM TO ACTUAL OWNERSHIP OF LAND IN THE RESERVE, it is absurd to contend that Uquo alone have such claims. Ibeno and Oron towns own lands now included in the Reserve” Culled from a Writ of Summoms filed by the Ekets in a suit at the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Eket Judicial Division in 2017.

29. Nothing can be more explanatory of the true ownership of the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve than the above reproduced position where Uquo, a part of the Ekets, fiercely protested against the inclusion of Eket as owners of land around the Stubbs Creek Forest. That was because, they (Eket) do not own any land there, and Uquo owns only a fringe! Truth is light, and no matter how one tries, darkness cannot cover light. If, however, there is something to be said of the Ekets, it is that they are irrepressible petitioners, but therein inheres a portrayal that they are also perpetual malcontents and incurrably disgruntled people who stamp down on development without scruples. We are not the ones who should tell them to aband this invidious and odious practice.


30. In 2012, in another conceited act of presumptuousness, some Eket indigenes again applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission to be accorded a status of “Ekid Stubbs Creek Forest Development Organisation.” But like many other such senseless moves, that attempt too received the stern reprimanded and objection of the Corporate Affairs Commission as contained in a letter issued by that Commission and dated 28th March, 2012.

31. The haphazard style of the Ekets has once again been betrayed by the heading of the so called Press Release. When the caption reflected Onna lands, we are sure that some sensible members of the public must have expected that the release would publish any information concerning such lands belonging to Onna, whether in dispute or not. It is a shame that the Chieftains of Eket would subscribe to a release so sloppily rustled together. However, we are not altogether very surprise as the Ekets that we have known would succumb to nearly anything so long as it appears to attempt to discredit Ibeno. As it turn out, not a single fact about Onna was mentioned, and that is because the people know nothing about Onna. In other words, just like their sudden submission to Ibibio they also mentioned Onna to add relevance in a somewhat irrelevant affair.

32. We wish to end this rejoinder by saying that the history of the world is the history of migration and movement. It is foolhardy to claim another's land when you cannot even tell your own story. The Ibibios have a relative story of their origin, so are the Efiks, and so forth. No one can ask any of these people to pack or relocate elsewhere. That boast from the Ekets is bragadacious, wanton, unwieldy and completely unattainable. We dare them anyday to make the attempt and see who will regret the most. Eket did not predate Ibeno, we did them. Facts are sacred!

Being a rejoinder of the people of Ibeno Local Government Area to the frivolous claims to ownership of the Stubb Creek Forest Reserve by Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas.

@ Lalasticlala, seun , mynd44 front page

Epistle. It's too long.

SportsHD:
Epistle. It's too long.

Not for readers tho

Ibeno people have been shortchanged for a very long time. Sad they got no voice in Akwa Ibom. Eket people have continued to surpress them.

Kinematics:
Ibeno people have been shortchanged for a very long time. Sad they got no voice in Akwa Ibom. Eket people have continued to surpress them.

Yeah but now the system by nature is gradually favoring Ibeno Ibeno..,
Mobil was sold to seplat and the new company signed MOU with Ibeno not even Eket, Onna and even Esit Eket so the stuff didn’t go down well with them

Kinematics:
Ibeno people have been shortchanged for a very long time. Sad they got no voice in Akwa Ibom. Eket people have continued to surpress them.

Even their slot in Akwa Ibom state house of assembly is merged with Esit Eket. The HOA member is from Esit Eket. Hon. Akpanusoh - Ibeno/Esit Eket constituency

sageb:


Even their slot in Akwa Ibom state house of assembly is merged with Esit Eket. The HOA member is from Esit Eket. Hon. Akpanusoh - Ibeno/Esit Eket constituency

Yeah bro

Ilaumoh:

Yeah but now the system by nature is gradually favoring Ibeno Ibeno..,
Mobil was sold to seplat and the new company signed MOU with Ibeno not even Eket, Onna and even Esit Eket so the stuff didn’t go down well with them

Mobil sold to seplat? Damn I don't like indigenous companies taking over anything oil and gas in Nigeria. Their workers welfare is always nonsense. I'm not just talking about seplat alone but anything indigenous in the o&g industry in Nigeria.

However good to know that Ibeno people are now getting wise. Funny thing is Eket people have dominated Mobil than any other people from Akwa Ibom, not even Ibeno people.

Kinematics:




Mobil sold to seplat? Damn I don't like indigenous companies taking over anything oil and gas in Nigeria. Their workers welfare is always nonsense. I'm not just talking about seplat alone but anything indigenous in the o&g industry in Nigeria.

However good to know that Ibeno people are now getting wise. Funny Eket people have dominated Mobil than any other people from Akwa Ibom, not even Ibeno people.

Yeah your right ... Even me I hate seplat

[/b]Cold War episode 2;[b]

Planned Sack Of BUA Group By Eket And Esit Eket People: Mbono Nnito Ibeno, Ulok Ulok People Assembly Read Riot Act
By Udeme Utip - December 8, 2021
pic of leaders of the Ibeno and Ulok Ulok People Assembly, during the press conference at Ibeno on Dec. 08 2021
pic of leaders of the Ibeno and Ulok Ulok People Assembly, during the press conference at Ibeno on Dec. 08 2021
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December 08, (THEWILL) – The people of Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have stated in strong terms that they will fight with the last drop of their blood to ensure the citing of BUA refinery in Ibeno.

The people who came under the umbrella of Joint Council of Mbono Nnito Ibeno and Ulok Ulok People Assembly warned that no part of their land belongs to Eket and they will therefore not tolerate further trespass to their land.



Recall that the people of Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas had last week issued a quit notice to BUA Refinery with claims that the land allocated for the proposed refinery belongs to the Ekid people.

Ibeno people; in a rejoinder by the Joint Council of Mbono Nnito Ibeno and Ulok Ulok People Assembly, signed by Chief Ikoedem Ekong, Joint Council Chairman and Pastor Tom Samuel Afia, Joint Council Secretary in Upenekang, Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State on Wednesday, send strong warning that BUA refinery is to be located in Ibeno even as they will therefore defend BUA activities, its personnel, both local and expatriates.

Reading a riot act, the group said: “We wish to sound it as a note of warning that no part of Ibeno belongs to Eket, BUA Refinery is to be located in Ibeno. Ibeno will not tolerate any trespass to its land. Ibeno will defend BUA activities, it’s personnel both local and expatriates.

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“Ibeno will never take up arms against Eket, but we will not fold our arms and watch the activities of miscreants in our land. If one leaf is taken from Ibeno into Eket, we will enter and collect 12 leaves.

“We will equally not permit one BUA personnel to be hurt or killed by Eket in the course of carrying out their legitimate construction work in Ibeno. This will be a blessing to Akwa Ibom State and Nigeria as a whole.

“The people of Ekid will ignore our warning at their own peril. They have boasted that they were going to finish us off in 1993 before the government intervened, perhaps this may be the opportunity to carry out this their long awaited yearning and desire. May they dare!”.

“We know that the real problem of the Ekid people is the fear of the unknown because they have nothing to offer in this great state other than making people believe who and what they are not. But we also know that there are no developmental strides carried out anywhere in the state that will not have a constructive and positive impact on all members of the state.” The 31-point statement stated

Reacting to the Ekid people who had queried the ancestry of the Ibeno people, the statement which dwelt heavily on the history of the people insisted that Ekid migrated from Ibeno.

“The majority of the people admitted that their ancestors came from Ibeno many years ago. Their story begins with a civil war in Ibeno, a war which they called Nna. During this war, many people were driven out of Ibeno and their only avenue of escape was the north. The refugees, led by a man known as Okpo Eti, fled to the North and settled in the country now occupied by the Eket Clan”. The statement added.

The Ibeno people who recalled regrettably that the drums of war recently sounded by the Eket people was same as they did before the communal crisis which claimed many lives between Ibeno and Ekid people in 1993, called on the Akwa Ibom State government to remain attentive to inciting utterances by communities in the state to maintain existing peaceful coexistence in the state.

Attached: pic of leaders of the Ibeno and Ulok Ulok People Assembly, during the press conference at Ibeno on Dec. 08 2021

@Lalasticlala front page

I can see two Ijaw landgrabbers eyeing Ibeno.
Trying to use minor squabble between Ibeno and Eket to separate Ibeno from their Akwaibom brothers and allow them(Ijaw) to annex Ibeno.

cc: Bkkay, Ekealterago, Eastlink,

Come and see these Ijaw cunning beings and their funny antics.

Igboid:
I can see two Ijaw landgrabbers eyeing Ibeno.
Trying to use minor squabble between Ibeno and Eket to separate Ibeno from their Akwaibom brothers and allow them(Ijaw) to annex Ibeno.

cc: Bkkay, Ekealterago, Eastlink,

Come and see these Ijaw cunning beings and their funny antics.

Pls can you be more elaborate cos we don’t understand you ?

Ilaumoh:

Pls can you be more elaborate cos we don’t understand you ?

You are from Ibeno I guess.

Ibeno and Eastern Obolo have since been mapped by IYC (Ijaws Youth Council) and INC (Ijaw National Council) as part and parcel of Ijaw Political franchise.

To this end, Ijaws will do anything to separate Ibeno from it's bond with other Akwaibom clans , so as to make their Ijawanization agenda seamless.

Observe how Sageb and Kinematics, two well Known Ijaw Land grabbers and expansionists are trying to make you see your Eket brothers as wolves! You think they are doing so because they love Ibeno?
Nope! They are doing it because they reckon that isolating you from your ties to Akwaibom which your ancestral relationship reflects, is a good way to water their own Ijaws expansionist agenda.

..

Igboid:


You are from Ibeno I guess.

Ibeno and Eastern Obolo have since been mapped by IYC (Ijaws Youth Council) and INC (Ijaw National Council) as part and parcel of Ijaw Political franchise.

To this end, Ijaws will do anything to separate Ibeno from it's bond with other Akwaibom clans , so as to make their Ijawanization agenda seamless.

Observe how Sageb and Kinematics, two well Known Ijaw Land grabbers and expansionists are trying to make you see your Eket brothers as wolves! You think they are doing so because they love Ibeno?
Nope! They are doing it because they reckon that isolating you from your ties to Akwaibom which your ancestral relationship reflects, is a good way to water their own Ijaws expansionist agenda.

Well said.

Kinematics:



Ipig miscreant spewing rubbish as always...

You suppose know BBB agenda

Ilaumoh:

Pls can you be more elaborate cos we don’t understand you ?

Igboid, these ones are not even aware of what is happening at all.

They are busy bickering and fighting each other while Ijaw drunks are swarming around like vultures looking for decaying body to devour.

Kinematics:




Mobil sold to seplat? Damn I don't like indigenous companies taking over anything oil and gas in Nigeria. Their workers welfare is always nonsense. I'm not just talking about seplat alone but anything indigenous in the o&g industry in Nigeria.

However good to know that Ibeno people are now getting wise. Funny thing is Eket people have dominated Mobil than any other people from Akwa Ibom, not even Ibeno people.

Ijaw landgrabbers, already fuelling quarrels looking for solid land, water and oil to grab.

You know quite well, that the severance of ties between Ibeno and Eket is the key to grabbing Ibeno.

IYC and your hungry INC are already sharing 500 recharge card on their Facebook group.

Abeg which of the two sides is Igbo?

alanto:
Abeg which of the two sides is Igbo?

None

Igboid:


You are from Ibeno I guess.

Ibeno and Eastern Obolo have since been mapped by IYC (Ijaws Youth Council) and INC (Ijaw National Council) as part and parcel of Ijaw Political franchise.

To this end, Ijaws will do anything to separate Ibeno from it's bond with other Akwaibom clans , so as to make their Ijawanization agenda seamless.

Observe how Sageb and Kinematics, two well Known Ijaw Land grabbers and expansionists are trying to make you see your Eket brothers as wolves! You think they are doing so because they love Ibeno?
Nope! They are doing it because they reckon that isolating you from your ties to Akwaibom which your ancestral relationship reflects, is a good way to water their own Ijaws expansionist agenda.

Funnily the fight as nothing to do with Ijaw people .. meanwhile Ibeno is Obolo not ijaw and @kinematics was saying the truth ..

Ilaumoh:

Funnily the fight as nothing to do with Ijaw people .. meanwhile Ibeno is Obolo not ijaw and @kinematics was saying the truth ..

It is clear you guys are innocently and gracefully naive like an infant.

Well, I do not think Captain8, and his numerous monikers like Adakaboro8, ditaridisciple, giftbro and his numerous clan of clowns will agree with you.

Ibeno and Obolo land is too sweet and the oil too precious, and the waters so quenching, that Ijaws have already mapped you guys out for conquest.

All you Ibibiods should settle your differences and forge a way forward for yourselves.

You are lucky you already have governors that are interested in your development.

sageb:


Even their slot in Akwa Ibom state house of assembly is merged with Esit Eket. The HOA member is from Esit Eket. Hon. Akpanusoh - Ibeno/Esit Eket constituency

IT'S ROTATIONAL. SOME YEARS BACK IBENO MAN WAS THE HOA MEMBER AND HIS NAME WAS UKPULUKPOM UKPONG ETE. I LEAVED AT IBENO FOR 3 YEARS, SO I KNOW BETTER.

alanto:
Abeg which of the two sides is Igbo?

omo see obsession

chaiiii the superiority of igbos are hitting these people badly.
to make the matter worse
igbos no even send them sef
like how will you even send someone with tiger claws on the face

you can only complete with someone on your level
igbos no get competition because they're alpha

Ilaumoh:

Funnily the fight as nothing to do with Ijaw people .. meanwhile Ibeno is Obolo not ijaw and @kinematics was saying the truth ..

He is telling you the truth but you won't listen.

Ekwuite82:
IT'S ROTATIONAL. SOME YEARS BACK IBENO MAN WAS THE HOA MEMBER AND HIS NAME WAS UKPULUKPOM UKPONG ETE. I LEAVED AT IBENO FOR 3 YEARS, SO I KNOW BETTER.

Yeah your right is rotational