By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
A farmer working on the 32-hectares cocoa farm belonging to late Chief Ogar Asam, in Ajassor, which shares a boundary with Abonita Cocoa Estate, in Etung Local Government Area of Cross River State, Mr. Mac Prince Mbu-Liku, has raised the alarm over the disappearance of one of his workers, named, ‘Mike,’ accusing a fellow farmer, Mr. Asu Njor, of knowing the whereabout of the missing worker.
Mac Prince made the allegations while complaining on what he described as intimidation and abduction of his workers in a telephone discussion with our correspondent yesterday in Calabar.
Mike, who is about 24 years old is said to be missing after a group of men pretending to be taskforce operating at the Abonita Cocoa Estate, which shared a common boundary with late Chief Assam’s 32-hectare cocoa farm, stormed the plantation, bundled three of Mac Prince’s workers, got them well beaten before handing them over to the Area Command police station where they were thrown into the cell and allowed to cool their feet in police detention.
Mr. Mac Prince alleged that Mr. Njor knows the whereabout of his missing worker, asking the state governor to wade into the matter by asking Mr. Njor to produce his worker.
He said, “Njor Asu, an indigene of Agborkim, cannot come and inherit someone’s land at Ajassor, he should be called to order and asked to stay off my family’s property.
“On Sunday July 28, 2024, I left the village for Calabar, the Cross River State capital, only to be called that, Mr. Njor sent some thugs under the pretense that they were members of a taskforce to arrest anyone they find in my farm, and as the taskforce got to the farm they succeeded in bundling three of my workers and took to the
police station and left them in police custody.
“What I don’t understand is the reason for the third worker, who is by name Mike not among the three who are still in police custody.
“The question now is who are these members of the taskforce at Abonita Cocoa Estate, given the fact that government has long disbanded the task force which he set up. The question now is, who is behind the task force?
“As I speak, one of these workers is still missing, and from what I gathered, only two are in police custody with one still missing.
“From what I gathered, before my workers were finally whisked away by the said taskforce, my workers were seriously intimidated and frightened as
a result of sporadic gunshots in the air to get my workers scared.
“As I speak, one person is still missing, they brought out two, and I don’t know what they have done to the third person. I have document. with me showing that government had disbanded the taskforce, so I don’t know if the one Mr. Asu Njor had been parading with is his personal taskforce or that of government.
“I don’t know if Njor has he become a government official or cocoa allocation chairman, to be moving with a taskforce, where is the source that he has been drawing his strength from?
“The 32-hectare cocoa plot which is in contention with state government is a property of Chief Ogar Asam’s family, the governor had in one of the stakeholders meetings told them not to include it among farms to be allocated to allottees, I have document to back up my claims.
“What baffled me is that on March 6, the state governor instructed that part of that land should not be included in the allocation, because it was not a property of state government, unfortunately Oscar Ofuka and his cohorts withhold land and hid, pretending to be keeping it for government, using the land to harbour thugs.”
But in a swift reaction to the allegations, Mr. Asu Njor, said, “We saw two of their boys in our cocoa farm and we arrested them and handed them over to the police for stealing our cocoa.
“They are living at Okundi, but we caught them right in our farm and handed them over to police any other person he is mentioning we don’t know about that, the two we arrested were caught harvesting our cocoa and we did what any law abiding citizen would have done by handing them over to the police.”
Confirming the incident, the Investigating Police Officer, IPO, in the matter, Mr. Akparawu (surname withheld) and the Commander, Area Command, Ikom Mr. Akanonu Frank, said, “We have two of the suspects with us, we just released two of the suspects to them on the basis that they were daily paid labourers and two are still with us.
“We don’t know what you are talking about of a missing person.”
In her reaction to the issue on television conversations, Cross River Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, said the complaint is yet to be lodged with the command on about the missing worker.
