Cross River/Tivs community disputes: Army cancels peace talks and detains young people in connection with a soldier’s death

Soldiers from the security force assigned to maintain order after a protracted altercation between them and Tiv settlers detained many young people from the Yache-Ijiegu hamlet of Yala LGA Cross River State on Wednesday night.

They were taken into custody to be questioned about the claims made by Yache-Ijiegu boys that they killed a soldier over the weekend during the community battle, which burned houses and left 20 people dead.

Community members claimed that the soldiers’ outrage at their colleague’s death was the reason behind the cancellation of a scheduled peace conference between the two groups on Wednesday and their recourse to arresting their young men.

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“The Tivs said they were not coming to the meeting, and our people that went back,” stated one of the sources.

“However, Benuean military came to our village and questioned citizens. A few of our youth leaders were coerced into taking them to the hospital, where our lads receiving treatment for bullet wounds sustained in the conflict over the weekend.

“One of our boys was taken away from the hospital after he was shot.”

Reliable reports state that the soldier in question died accidentally as a result of the soldiers demanding that they use all the youths who went to the jungle to assault the Tivs.

According to information obtained by the soldiers, a Yache youngster receiving medical attention in the hospital for gunshot wounds informed them that the boy who had accidentally shot and killed a soldier while engaging the Tivs was shot himself by the soldiers.

According to the sources, there is a lot of fear in the village since the troops are allegedly threatening the Tiv settlers and they are rumoured to be organising for a future attack.

Now a serving commissioner, Senator Stephen Odey is an indigenous of the Yache-Ijiegu village and has appealed to the commander of Ogoja barracks for a peaceful approach to prevent soldiers from attacking the people.

The soldier who led the arrest, Lt. Hassan, responded to a phone question by saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Much obliged.

Another commander from the Yache-Ijiegu side of the team, Lt Alex, verified over the phone that a soldier had died and that it was not acceptable in a previous interview.

“We came here to maintain order, but the populace keeps inciting and attacking, even to the point of killing one of our soldiers.”