June 29, (THEWILL) – A Human Rights Lawyer and native of Nko Community, Ofem Ofem Obeten, has demanded for N500 billion compensation from the Nigerian Army, for invading his Nko village.
Ofem made the demand while reacting to the loss of lives and properties, suffered by his Community as a result of the civil unrest in the area.
While demanding for N500 billion compensation for damages caused by soldiers, the human rights lawyer accused the soldiers of raping girls and women in Nko community, without doing same to the neighbouring Onyedama Community, who are also engaged in a fued with Nko.
“It’s like they have targeted Nko for genocide, lives of old, middle aged women, as seen in the gory pictures.
“There is a human catastrophe in the offing, and it is going to affect the economy of Cross River State. What happened now is like the same thing that happened in 1975, when the same military invaded Ugep (headquarters of Yakurr LGA of Cross River State).
“We called on relevant stakeholders to make themselves available to a process, geared towards finding a lasting solution to the crisis”, the lawyer maintained.
He advocated for a Commission of Inquiry to be set up, so as to look into the immediate and remote cause of the communal clash that has brought pain to his people.
He posits that a crisis which could have been amicably resolved between two sister communities in the same state would resort to engagement of each other in a war.
Reacting to the incident, Army Public Relations Officer PRO in Cross River State, Capt. Dorcas Aluko, stated that the army only went to the Nko Community to protect lives and Properties, and nothing else.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
