Refugees say their relatives are still missing after Ibeno/ Ilaje crisis.
– Steve Ovirih .
The Akwa Ibom community of Ibeno has hosted settlers and residents from other communities for a very long time. Among their hosts are the Ilaje people of Ondo South Senatorial District of Ondo State.
The Ilajes in their natural habitat are fisher men and women and other aqua elements like crayfish are also what they are into , which they hunt for in the deep seas of various communities.
Report has it that the Ilajes and the Ibenos have not in all their mutual years of co existence had a confrontation once but all that became history in April as the peace of Ibeno became shattered on the 19th April when the Ibenos attacked and bloodied their residents of the Ilaje extraction leaving many dead while others took to their heels.
Although the Ibenos have countered that the Ilajes also hit them hard in the course of the confrontation as houses were burnt while they also suffered casualties .
The crisis was said to have stemmed from the fight between a tenant and a landlord over some domestic issue but matter was said to have gotten to a head , when the tenant , a boy was said to have severally stabbed the landlord to death , a matter that degenerated into a crisis that made the indigiens of the town to side with the landlord , bloodying the young man in the process.
The death of the Ibeno landlord brought a heavy toll on the Ilajes resident in the community as the youths ganged up to attack them , killing several Ilaje youths while houses and property worth millions of naira were razed.
As the matters stand now the Ilajes who have become refugees in neighbouring communities have cried out that their relatives are still missing days after the communal clash. Report has it that the refugees have spilled over in Eket as well as other adjoining communities of Akwa Ibom ; the refugees are now surviving living in filling stations , churches and uncompleted buildings as they do not seem safe to stay in Ibeno for now.
Ilaje fisher men have lost fishing equipment put at the market price of over 2 billion naira to the crisis while their houses have been burnt beyond repairs .
