Nigeria Content Online

A bloody clash
between two rival groups that specialise in oil pipe lines vandalism in
Calabar, Cross River State, has left two members dead and a score of
others injured. The clash took place along the NNPC Right of Way in
Calabar.

It was revealed
that victims of the fight met their tragic end at the Ekorinim axis of
the pipelines that run from the Calabar jetty to the NNPC Tank Farm at
Harbour village in the Calabar Municipal area.

Though the full
identities of those killed were yet to be ascertained as at the time of
this report, their friends and neighbours seen at Ekorinim Village
lamenting the tragedy, gave their names as Ekeng and Kingsley aka King.

It was gathered
that trouble started between Creek Town vandals from the nearby
Odukpani local government area of the state and their Ekorinim
counterparts over the sharing of the proceeds that will accrue from the
sale after successfully siphoning their loot.

The hoodlums
stormed the pipelines at about 1a.m last weekend, with over 20 of them
armed with locally made guns, machetes, and jerry cans. However, as the
vandals emptied the pipelines and got ready to return home with their
loot, the Creek Town boys, who outnumbered the former group, allegedly
attempted to cart away the entire jerry cans of fuel, leaving their
Ekorinim counterparts empty handed, thus leading to physical combat.

One Ekong Edet, who
identified himself as a friend of late Kingsley, confirmed that the
deceased left the house hale and hearty on the fateful night to scoop
fuel, only for them to be informed the following day that he had been
killed at the pipelines.

“I advised him not
to involve himself in fuel bunkering again, because it has killed so
many people in Ekorinim but he will not listen,” Mr. Edet said.

The police is yet
to make any arrest as at the time of the report, but the deceased were
said to have been buried in shallow graves by the bank of the river.