Victor Okon
Women and youths of Bendeghe Ekiem community in Etung Local Government Area of Cross River State have threatened to protest naked if the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Johnson Ebokpo, fails to withdraw plans to privatize the government-controlled cocoa estate located in their community.
The threat was issued shortly after a protest on Friday, where community women and youths expressed their strong opposition to the planned privatization.
Speaking separately with Leadership, the Bendeghe Ekiem women leader, Ntunkai Mary Obi, and the women’s chief, Helen Ogar, appealed to the commissioner to open a dialogue with community leaders to resolve the matter amicably.
“Starting from today, we have given the commissioner for Agriculture two weeks to get back to us after this protest so that we can dialogue, otherwise we will continue with the protest after the two weeks,” Obi stated.
She warned that, “If the commissioner fails to get back to us, we will do as our culture demands. In our culture, if no one comes to us, we will go to the estate naked and walk around it before leaving it for the government to occupy.”
On his part, the Town Council Chairman, Mr. Etta Atu-Ojua, alongside the community youth leader, Comrade Tandu Kingsley, voiced their dissatisfaction with the planned privatization, cautioning the commissioner against actions that could push the community’s youths back into crime.
“We have instances where our youths took to crime, committing all manner of offences, until God decided to touch their hearts as a result of the functional estate,” Atu-Ojua remarked.
“We knew what our community went through in the hands of the youths. Unless the commissioner wants to tell us that he is seeking an avenue to send our youths to prison. Like the saying goes, an idle man’s heart is a workshop for the devil. The plantation is like an industry that engages our young men. Can’t you see how energetic they are?” he queried.
The community youths also vowed to sustain their protest if their concerns are ignored.
“The land is ours. The cocoa is theirs. We are ready to allow the commissioner to uproot their cocoa trees and take them away so that we can have access to our land and replant our own stems. Cocoa is our oil. Cocoa is our gold. Nobody can take it away from us,” Obi maintained.
Responding to the protests, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Johnson Ebokpo, and the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang, assured that Governor Bassey Otu, known for his people-centred policies, had no intention of making life difficult for cocoa estate host communities.
