The war in Essien Udim and other wailing of an externally displaced citizen (PART 1)
First, they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist… Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist… Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade_ unionist_ _Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me – Poem by Martin Niemöller
This is it. Terror is at my doorstep. The rhetoric – the outlandish corrosive destructive unguarded verbal pastimes of the few overfed, privileged and rambunctious carefree elites, who continually toy with extreme voyeur ideas, and stoke the embers of discord and strife, riding on our God-given beautiful diversity, to create make-believe fault-lines and fantasies in the minds of our young men, have finally brought sorrow, tears, blood, wailing, death and destruction to my own Local Government Area. The Police and the military, which are statutorily responsible for providing security guarantee, to all of us “bloody civilians” are now helpless in the face of a determined death-defying renegade group of Nnamdi-Kanu-brainwashed maniacs.
My avid readers know that I am a full-blooded son of Essien Udim in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. I have never pretended about my deep-rooted unapologetic Annang ancestry. I have repeatedly told the story surrounding the unseen corpse of my grandmother, who was denied the dignity of decent burial as a result of the boisterous juvenile delinquency of a certain Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and his military course mate, Yakubu Gowon, who resorted to fighting a foolish senseless war, resulting from their inability to manage their personal over-bloated egos. That war spilled the blood of a few million innocent souls, including bringing an end to my grandmother.
The woman – Mrs. Enwenwen Akpan Udom Inwang, was alone in the house, sick and left behind, as all those who could run, scampered into the bushes. Rampaging despicable ragtag Biafran pedophiles invaded the community in the dead of the night. They fired in all directions to kill defenseless citizens who knew nothing about the egotistic disagreement between Ojukwu and Gowon. I am told that the sudden boom of their ammunition, from all corners of the quiet hamlet, jolted everybody from sleep around 1.00am. The booms and bangers that followed lasted for another two years.
My parents narrate that they thought their run-for-life from that hellish experience would be short and quick. They were wrong. By the time they returned in 1971, the building that housed my grannie, the compound and everything else were part of a thick forest. No bones. No life. Nothing. Till this day. She and all those who were unable to run, have disappeared from this earth. Forever.
It is with this sad bitter past in mind, that I received with familiar shock, news of the ongoing war, mounted in my neighborhood yet again, by another set of brainwashed killers, hiding under the banner of Nnamdi Kanu’s Eastern Nigeria Security Network (ESN), the armed wing of IPOB, to kill, maim and destroy.
Since I do not want to write a poem like Martin Niemöller did when they came for him, or be a missing number like my grandmother is, and having read the press statement by the Police which seems to suggest that security agencies do not know where this schism is coming from, I will rather use this opportunity to provide clarity on all I know with the hope that, someone somewhere would listen up and do something.
The group in action around Essien Udim started in 2017, after a certain dare-devil John Ekokoi, an indigene of Ikot Akpan Village in Ukana West 1, who used to live in his maternal home at Anambra State, fled Operation Python Dance, to start a cell of the ESN in Ikot Akpan. At inception, he was heroically welcomed by the village hierarchy and stakeholders. He organized youths into a quasi-armed security group to provide freelance security assurance to the community. He setup a training camp at the boundary communities lying between Obot Akara and Essien Udim LGAs.
The community reciprocally indulged him and his boys. He was loyal to the village head who was also loyal to him. He served the coercive needs and indulgencies of his community. It was not long before he traced his network back to IPOB, which started sending humanitarian, food and arms supplies to his growing followership. He became popular – a man of the people. He became big, strong and reliable. He had money, influence, food and of course, guns. Then the romance turned awry.
It is not therefore strange that he fell out with the village head over royalty and spoils of war. The village head reportedly got him arrested and detained by the Police in Essien Udim. In the usual tardy and unserious manner, the Police set him and his boys free, for “want of substantial evidence”. By this time, he had drawn the line on the sand. He had acquired enough arms, ammunition, men, materials and charms from his puppeteers in IPOB, to start a full scale war against the police, the military, the government and everything in-between. The personal vendetta he has against the police, intersected perfectly with the bigger anti-Nigeria agenda of Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB. So, he went about venting his spleen on security agencies.
First, he ambushed and killed Policemen at Ikpe Annang junction, burning them inside a Hilux Patrol vehicle and taking their guns.. Then, he struck at Nsassak Junction, killing and incinerating officers of the Nigerian Customs Service in their vehicle and taking their guns. In quick succession, he razed all the vehicles parked at the Divisional Police Station, Nto Nsek and vandalized the building. He then proceeded to torch the home of his village head. Not done, he cordoned off the home of a serving policeman in the Ukana Area, and burnt him alive last weekend. When the joint army/police task team went the next day to recover the remains of the policeman from the charred building, he ambushed them and killed a yet-to-be disclosed number of soldiers and policemen, torched their Hilux vehicles and took their guns. He has also gone ahead to hoist a piece of multicolored rag with a picture of the sun, that they claim to be the Biafran Flag in the area.
The internet is awash with stories and pictures of the carnage unleashed on the police, the customs, army and civilian infrastructure in the past two months by this terror group. Friends who hail from the adjoining villages narrate tales of horror and feisty bloodbath. There is war.
So how did we get here? What do we do?
In attempting to apportion blames, we cannot exonerate the ruling class at all levels from culpability. I have repeatedly warned here that the corrosion of the public space by political actors in and out of government, prepares this country for anarchy. The moment Nigeria’s innocence got punctured by the capitulation of former President Yar’adua in the ill-advised amnesty for so-called Niger Delta militants, I knew it would be a matter of time before other non-state actors took up arms to threaten our collective existence. Because it seems that maximum violence is the language that the government understands. Sadly, everything seems to have come full circle.
*(TO BE CONTINUED…..)*
***** Celestine Mel – BSc (Hons) Calabar, MBA (Scotland), ACIS, ACIBN, MCP is an indigene of Essien Udim. He writes from the FCT-Abuja.
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