Two communities, Biajua and Biakwan, of Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State are protesting a move by the state governor, Ben Ayade to allegedly take their lands as well as the Reserved Forest for the use of Ayade Farms Ltd. The communities, after consultations, reportedly rejected the Ayade Farms project, saying the government had not compensated them but wanted to use force.
The people are also alleging that the government was trying to acquire the Reserved Forest without following due process. At meetings with Biajua Community on June 15 and 18, 2020 the Chairman of Biajua Community Town Council, Mr. Francis Ojong, alias Eze Ego, told the members that the governor’s intention to establish a farm in the reserved forest was for their general good and development.
Members of the communities were angered by the governor’s move and attempted to stop the team of surveyors from the state government which had commenced the surveying of the land. The government team was led by the state Commissioner for Works, Engr. Dane Osim Asu, who on June 18, 2020 went ahead to take the soil samples without the consent of the two communities. This action infuriated the youths of the two communities and some of them attempted to snatch the documents from the commissioner and the Biajua Community Town Council Chairman, Mr. Francis Ojong. According to community sources, the government team and council chairman have vowed to deal decisively with anyone or group oppose to the project, adding that they allegedly called for security support from the Nigerian Army, Danare Operation Base. One of the youths at the forefront of the efforts to secure the communities’ land, Anthony Bette Kajang of Biajua community and a few others were allegedly hit by bullets, according to villagers. Anthony’s right leg was said to have been damaged by bullet but that he was responding to treatment at an undisclosed location. When contacted, a senior officer at the 13 Brigade, Nigerian Army headquarters in Calabar, who pleaded not to be named, denied that soldiers were involved in the communal crisis. “Long before this incident, soldiers from Danare Operation Base had been withdrawn from that axis. It is therefore not correct to say soldiers shot people whereas they were not present there. Soldiers are not used to settle communal crisis. That base was meant to secure the Nigeria-Cameroon border,” he said. The Commissioner for Works, Osim Asu also denied that they used force on the community, saying the youths of the two communities had a face-off. He also said the state government would not have acquired the lands for the proposed farms without due process and payment of compensation.
source:DailyTrust
