Oil rich communities of Ibeno, Eket and Esit Eket in Akwa Ibom State may soon experience another crisis if the Federal and State governments failed to intervene.

Recall that the people of Ibeno, Eket and Esit Eket local government areas known as Ekid nation have been enmeshed in crisis over ownership of Stubb Creek Forest located in Ibeno, which is now acquired by BUA Group for a refinery project and Landmark Beach Resort.

The latest crisis was the bloody attack in December 2024 where dozens of lives were lost and properties destroyed, with many victims hospitalized.

However, the leadership of Ekid People’s Union (Eket and Esit Eket) led by the president, Dr. Samuel Udonsak has issued a quit notice, warning the people of Ibeno to vacate their ancestral land or face the consequences.

Irked by the quit notice, a socio-cultural association of Ibeno under the aegis of Ulok Ulok Progressives Assembly, UUPA, rising from a consultative emergency meeting in Ukpenekang on Saturday, queried why a sovereign local government area created and gazetted by the federal government should be ordered to leave their present location by a sister local government area.

The group alleged that the purported quit notice was not actually targeted at Ibeno, but was targeted at the existing and intending investors coming into the local government by virtue of the abundant oil/gas and other natural resources.

The group in a communique signed by Enienwe Carlson Okwuoluo as it’s Mayor, Enienwe Nkaan Ikat, Secretary-General and Enienwe Ukot Ibono Enyina, Public Relations Officer and issued to journalists on Sunday, said the confrontational posture of their Eket neighbours to existing and intending investors posed a clear danger to scare dozens of oil/gas investors and allied businesses from the area.

The group noted that though it had been keeping quiet all the while, it would not hesitate to defend its people, the investors and residents of the area if they were pushed to the wall.

According to the communique, “So, by this notice, we are drawing both the federal and state governments’ attention to this looming crisis plotted by Ekid, which can escalate to disrupt oil production activities thereby causing national sabotage to the state and federal government in a season that everyone is harping on energy security.

“We have respect for the rule of law and will not want anybody to push us to carry arms thereby disrupting the peace being enjoyed in our area.

“In line with the Commissioner of Police (CP), Baba Azare’s directive to all youths to refrain from stoking crisis in oil bearing communities, we have also warned our youths accordingly to remain peaceful with the oil companies in Ibeno LGA.

“We call on the police and other security agencies in the State to wade into the looming violence with a view to nipping it in the bud, as well as to prosecute those perceived as economic saboteurs in Eket and Esit Eket Local Government Areas.

“We are for peace and we have openly welcomed and will continue to welcome all the oil and gas companies and other allied businesses to come and invest in Ibeno Local Government Area. But they cannot operate successfully under the atmosphere of tension created by our neighbours.

“We are therefore calling on them to sheathe their swords and respect the peace overtures of Governor Umo Eno, who had since appealed to all the warring factions to embrace peace as the matter is already awaiting determination in Court.

“We have been keeping quiet hoping the aggressors from Eket nation would see reason and refrain from scaring away investors through frequent attacks, killings, disruptions of our fishing businesses and dislocation of our people.

“But if we are pushed, we will not hesitate to defend ourselves, investors and even rally our Ijaw and Obolo kinsmen across the Niger-Delta region to fight our cause.

“We have been here since immemorial, and even if we had been here for only 10 years, it is within our constitutional rights to become free citizens.”