By John Ighodaro
CALABAR—The Cross River State Government, has ordered the arrest and detention of Boje chiefs, three days after the communal clash between the Nsadop and Boje communities in Boki Local Government Area  broke out in the state.

The state government, has also asked for the withdrawal of the chiefs’ certificates of recognition as village/clan heads, following the killings and destruction of property in Nsadop by suspected Boje community members.

The Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, declared this at a joint meeting between the two communities at the Governor’s Office, Calabar.

The meeting, which was also attended by the Chairperson of Boki Local Government Area, Mrs. Bessie Bankong-Obi, the Paramount Ruler of the area and security operatives from the area and Calabar, saw a visibly angry Imoke, saying that the action of the Boje chiefs was unacceptable.

While condemning the action of the people of Boje, he said  Cross River will not tolerate their action and therefore, would use them as an example by detaining and charging them to court for murder, so as to serve as  deterrent to other communities.

The Governor described the carnage as the worst experience since he became Governor of the state, as the land issue, which they claimed was responsible for the dispute was untenable because when government got wind of the dispute, it asked the police to intervene.

According to him, “the Deputy Governor, Mr. Efiok Cobham, had to go to Ikom to meet with the leaders and chiefs of the feuding communities on Saturday but some people, especially those from Boje refused to attend the meeting and the Deputy Governor asked them to sheath their swords and return those who were captured by either side.”

The Governor, frowned that between Friday and Saturday when the meeting was going on in Ikom, the Boje people took the laws into their hands by invading Nsadop to wreak havoc on the community, stressing that if Boje was the first to be attacked by Nsadop as they claimed, they failed report the attack to the police, rather they devastated a community beyond recognition.

He said the Boje chiefs were accomplice to murder because all of them participated in the attempt to wipe out a community “by killing children, women and disabled”, saying that they destroyed a community for eight hours as they had constant supply of petrol in an organized attack.

The Governor said, “they will be detained and charged to court for murder and the police should make sure it will not happen in Cross River again because their action was malicious and wicked as they made sure houses were burnt while wrecking havoc over land”, adding that “Government will not tolerate it in 2010 in Cross River State as a group of people should take the laws into their hands after government had intervened”.