Blood bath in Calabar as communities clash over human head for burial of high chief

No fewer than ten persons have been reportedly killed following a clash between two neighbouring communities in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River state.

The clash was as a result of the death of a high chief.

Vanguard is reporting that hostilities between the people of Ogwurude and their Oyidah neighbours, emanated from claims that certain young man’s buried body was decapitated for the high chief’s burial.

While as many as seven people from Oyidah were killed, two persons from Ogwurude also lost their lives in the fracas.

Many houses were set ablaze in both communities.

Commenting on the incident, a resident, Clement Ekpe, said: “Some head hunters chased the okada boy, who was returning from Oyidah Market with a lady and caught up with him at Ogwurude Junction.

“They asked the lady to run into the bush, killed the boy and cut off his head. “When the lady got home and narrated what happened, some Ogwurude youths rushed to the junction, where they found the headless body of the young man.

“They followed the bloodstains on the road to Oyidah community.

“They informed Oyidah’s Village Head about the incident and asked that those who carried out the act be brought out and handed over to the police.

“However, the Village Head could not produce the perpetrators and that led to a reprisal attack that night from the Ogwurude people,” Ekpe added.

Confirming the incident, the state security adviser, Mr. Jude Ngaji, said “Efforts are on to hold meetings with leaders of both communities to find lasting solution to the conflict.

“Security operatives have been deployed to the area and peace has returned to the feuding communities.”