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It’s easy to go to war but difficult to build on the ashes of its ruin.

The import of this statement is not lost on the people of Boje,
who, two weeks ago, invaded the neighbouring community of Nsadop to kill, maim
and destroy.

Now the two communities are paying the price of that communal
war.

Tucked in the bowels of Boki forest, Boje has only one access
road into and out of it. That road happens to run through Nsadop. So, for fear
of reprisal attacks, Boje natives have since October 23, 2010 stopped using the
road. The consequence is that the agricultural produce of this agrarian people
can no more be conveyed to the urban centres.

Boje, like other rural Boki communities, produces cocoa, banana,
yams and other cash crops. Before now, these were transported in lorries and
buses to Ogoja, Ikom and beyond for sale. But there is no outlet for them any
longer.

No vehicle passes through Nsadop to Boje again. And there is no
alternative access road to Boje, which is the last community in the hinterland
of western Boki.

The fear of revenge by Nsadop villagers means farm produce are
wasting away afterits harvest. There are, of course bush tracks through the
forest to other communities, but these tracks have been rendered inaccessible
by streams swollen by rain, mountains and gigantic trees.

To get to Burom, the nearest community to Boje on foot, is four
hours of endurance trek. Certainly noone can traverse this path with heavy load
on his or her head.

Interviews with the Boki people revealed that they did not
reflect well on the case before going to war with Nsadop village . Its elders
are now blaming the youth for resorting to war instead of dialogue, which they
had earlier proposed as the better avenue for resolving the land rights
dispute. Both the young and old [males] of Boje now sleep in the forest for
fear of retaliatory invasion by Nsadop. Uneasy calm now pervades the entire
community.

Whereas some elders and elites of Boje have proposed reconciliatory
talks to solve the problem of inaccessibility to their community, the youth are
said to be opposed to the suggestion as they are not ready to show remorse.
They are said to have preferred the Cross River State government to midwife a
truce to the problem of vehicular blockade to Boje than sending emissaries to
Nsadop for peace.

Nsadop boys have blocked the access road to Boje. All vehicles
now stop at Nsadop. Boje elites working in the cities no more go home. They are
afraid of their safety since some of them were accussed of providing the cash
and logistics used in prosecuting the war. They are now lobbying the state
governor, Liyel Imoke to make lasting peace between the two communities.

M Imoke had ordered the arrest of community leaders from Boje and
promised to ensure that they were all prosecuted. He also dethroned 12
traditional rulers of the community. There are also indications that indigenes
of the community nursing political ambition may have to shelve it. Mr Imoke is
understood to have vowed to work against any candidate from Boki who, directly
or indirectly, supported the Nsadop carnage.

Counting losses

The octogenerian traditional ruler of Nsadop, Otu Bernard Ntun
of Kaku, said his 80-year-sojourn on earth has been blissful until the October
23 incident when his entire village was invaded by people from Boje and destroy
it beyond recognition.

Pathetic is an understatement in describing the carnage visited
on Nsadop and the emotional pains of Mr Ntun. A walk through the length of this
village of 7,000 inhabitants, with about 2,000 houses, reveal that all the
homes were either razed down or demolished with the help of dynamites.

More than 30 people were alleged to have been killed in the
attack, while livestock, food crops and even economic trees were cut down by
the invaders. The village is now a shadow of itself.

The land in dispute is where the oil palm plantation established
by the defunct Eastern Nigerian administration of Michael Okpara is. Its
ownership has been a subject of dispute since the 1960’s. Mr Ntun, agonizing in
sadness as he lost his first son in the attack, said it was unbelievable that
two communities that have co-existed for centuries, speak the same language and
have a common ancestry could fight a war with the intention of annihilation.

“Our assailants, who might have conceived the idea several
years, considering the amount of ammunition and sophisticated weapons used,
took the village by surprise at noon when everyone was either in the farm or
out of the village for one reason or the other,” Mr Ntun said, his narration,
which was often punctuated by sighs and shaking of his head.

He said that the attack lasted for about eight hours without any
challenge, until the military and the police were drafted to quell the attack.

The Chairman of Boki Local Government Area, Bessie Bankong-Obi
who had conducted officials of the Cross River State Emergency Management
Agency [SEMA] and those of NEMA, around the scene for rapid assessment,
described the devastation as beyond comprehension. She,

however, warned against any act of reprisal, saying such would
be counterproductive.

“Security agencies are working round the clock to get to the root of the
crisis and bring the perpetrators to book,” she said. “We appeal to the people
of Nsadop to exercise patience as government would punish the culprits and
provide succor to the victims.”