Landowners and farmers in various Cross River settlements have voiced their concern about what they perceive as a persistent incursion of livestock and armed herders brandishing AK-47 weapons towards the villages.
Locals in the Odukpani Local Government Area have reported seeing these occurrences often, with reports of crop damage and widespread panic.
Ntan Obu is a riverine hamlet, and Ikpeme Effiom, a local of that area, claims that his farmlands have been repeatedly destroyed since last year.
According to him, herdsmen from adjacent Akwa Ibom State have set up camp along the riverbanks that go from Itu through Ntan Obu and on to other Ukwa Eburutu settlements.
“The herders intimidate the villagers with guns when they protest, and these cows have ravaged nearby farms,” Effiom said.
Callers to a live phone-in program on HIT FM, Calabar, condemned what they saw as the impunity of armed herders in their towns, and the topic took center stage.
A teacher named Atim Otu made the accusation that animals had just trampled her sister’s cassava fields in Okoyong. She asserted that her brother-in-law was held hostage at gunpoint when he dared to confront the herder.
They herd their cows while armed with firearms. Farmers who dare to confront them are frightened. The destruction of their farms has made them too scared to speak out, she added.
People from the communities of Atan Okoyong, Inua Akpa, and Okurikang have also voiced their displeasure with herders, claiming that they not only let cattle graze freely on farmed land but also remove crops for animal feed.
Some have even gone so far as to say that ranchers inform the authorities if farmers try to resist.
One caller, Okon Ekpenyong, made the accusation, “The painful part is that our people sometimes get detained when they try to stop the destruction.”
While Chief John Asanye of the Odukpani-based Okun and Eniong Abatim Clan Council expressed doubt that such instances were taking place in Ntan Obu as a result of increasing coastal waters, he did note that since 2019, conflicts between farmers and herders have been common throughout the larger Okoyong axis.
The Okoyong area has seen frequent fights since 2019,” Asanye revealed. Contacting the herders’ association was challenging as of this writing.
Calls and messages to the following individuals were not returned: Patrick Odion, the State Security Adviser for the Southern District; Francis Asuquo, the member representing the area in the Cross River State House of Assembly; and Bassey Akiba, the member of the House of Representatives.
When asked if any formal complaints had been filed, ASP Eitokpah Sunday Akata, who is in charge of police relations, said he would call the Odukpani divisional police officer.