The women and youths of the Bendeghe Ekiem community in the Etung Local Government Area in Cross River State have given the Commissioner for Agriculture, Johnson Ebokpo, a 14-day deadline to reverse the planned privatisation of a government-controlled estate or face the women dancing naked around the cocoa plantation.
This decision was made on Saturday during a rally organised by local teenagers and women to show their displeasure with the situation.
In a separate interview with PUNCH Online, Ntunkai Obi, the community women’s leader, and Helen Ogar, the women’s leader, encouraged the commissioner to contact the leaders of their community to discuss the problem and determine the next course of action.
Ogar said, “Starting from today, we have given a two-week ultimatum to the Commissioner for Agriculture to get back to us after this protest for us to dialogue; otherwise, we will continue with the protest after two weeks.
“If the commissioner fails to get back to us, we will do as our culture demands.
“In our culture, nobody comes to us; we will go to the estate naked and walk round the estate before leaving it for the government to occupy,” he remarked.
Also speaking, Town Council Chairman Mr Etta Atu-Ojua, along with community youth leader Comrade Tandu Kingsley, expressed their displeasure with the planned privatisation of the estate, urging Agric Commissioner Johnson Ebokpo to reverse his decision so that the entire community is not plunged into criminality.
Atu-Ojua said, “The land is ours; cocoa is theirs. We are ready to allow the commissioner to pull off their cocoa trees and take them away so that we can have access to our land to replant our own stems.
“Cocoa is our oil. Cocoa is our goal. Nobody can take it away from us.
“We have instances where our youths took to crime, committing all manner of crimes, until God decided to touch their hearts as a result of the functional estate.
“We knew what our community went through in the hands of 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?”
The community kids pledged to continue the protest if the commissioner did not listen to their cries.
They warned that the decision would plunge the community into illegal activity and begged the commissioner to reconsider it.
The community demands that the government reverse its decision to privatise the cocoa estate, participate in dialogue with community stakeholders, and allow the community to reclaim their land if the government is no longer interested in administering it.
The community youths promised to continue their demonstration if their requests were not satisfied, underlining that the land belonged to them.
