Yuletide: Akwa Ibom bans Ekpo masquerades, fireworks

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8 years ago

Towards a hitch-free Christmas and New Year festivities, the Akwa Ibom State police command has declared the dreaded Ekpo masquerade and other violent plays that characterised the season, banned during the period.

Activities of Ekpo masquerades in parts of the state, especially the Ikot Okoro axis of Abak municipal Council, Afahaobong, Essien Udim, Ikot Ekpene and Etim Ekpo Local Government Areas, have always turned violent during the Christmas and New Year festivities, with attendant loss of lives.

Fears of killings by masquerades, the Nigerian Tribune investigation revealed, had triggered forceful relocation to other areas by some natives of Afahaobong in Abak Local Government Area of the state, where the Ekpo cults operated with recklessness during their season.

“Because of the activities of Ekpo masquerades, I have relocated from my ancestral home in Afahaobong to another area of Abak with my children.

“I came to this community some years ago, bought this piece of land here and built this house for me and my family because of Ekpo masquerade that they called culture,” Pastor Udiong Akpan Usoro, told our correspondent.

“We only go to the village during the off-season of Ekpo, to cultivate and harvest our farms and also attend some important family functions,” he added.

Besides, the police said it would go tough on irate youths bent on making the festive period unpalatable to other law-abiding people of the state.

In line with this measure, users of fireworks, including knockouts and violent street parties, aimed at breaching the law and order in the state, according to the police, would be punished.

The Commissioner of Police (CP), Murtala Mani, in a statement in Uyo, the state capital, warned parents and guardians not to leave their children and wards off guard.

Mani, who spoke through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Cordelia Nwawe, said members of the Force had been deployed to deal with such emergencies during the period.

He assured members of the public of uncompromised security for lives and properties and implored them to volunteer information on criminal elements with intent to breach the peace during the Yuletide.