Communal clash: Cross River to confiscate disputed lands —Security Adviser

FOLLOWING the incessant  communal clashes in Cross River State, Security Adviser to the governor, Jude Ngaji, has said that the state government would not hesitate to seize any disputed land in the state.

Ngaji, who stated this in an exclusive chat with the Nigerian Tribune in Calabar ,identified land as the major cause of communal conflict in the state.

He said due to the economic recession currently bedeviling the country, many people had embraced farming as a means of survival.

The State Security Adviser said, “as a government we will explore other options to resolve communal clashes because we know that about 99 per cent of these crises are because of land. Government taking over the land will be the last resort. Government will like to use all necessary avenues to ensure that we resolve these crises.

‘’It is only when it becomes practically impossible that we can step in. We understand the natural deity, so we do not just move in as a government to say because we have the paraphernalia of government we move in and say this land has been taken- over. You still cannot use that land without having to solve that issue in a more communal way.

‘’We will ensure that as a government we will be sensitive enough to what the people want and explore other options before we can take over any land.

‘’We did not have all this when nobody needed land, now, we are experiencing conflicts because the value of land itself has gone up- people have decided to shift from oil to farming and in farming you will need land to farm and people go beyond what they inherited to acquire new ones either forcefully, you know what I mean and these things are giving rise to most of what we are facing.

‘’Again, as at that time the state boundary commission itself had not gone to work because clearly they have a responsibility to move into the rural areas to make them steer clear of what belongs to others.

‘’It is so difficult even for the national boundary commission to effect that. For how long now that the people of Ebonyi and Adadama in Cross River have been fighting, for how many years we have lost almost 60 to 70 people. It was just recently that the boundary commission came to Cross River for the first time for us to address that matter.”