No fewer than 10,000 Ilaje people displaced almost four months ago due to clash with their host community in Mkpanak, Ibeno council area of Akwa Ibom State are still homeless and without any means of livelihood.
The Nation reports that the embattled Ilaje people comprising aged men, women and children are hanging around shops, churches, schools and petrol filling stations in Eket.
They also lost houses, cars, outboard engines and other valuables worth millions of naira during the clash that occurred on April 19 this year.
The state government had issued a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at brokering peace between the Ilaje and their Mkpanak host.
It also promised to assist Ilaje community to enable them to live their normal lives and continue with their fishing business.
But speaking at the weekend, the spokesperson of the Ilaje community, Mr Golden Ogungbemi, lamented that the government was yet to fulfil its promise to come to their rescue.
“We have not seen what much on the ground by the government. All the government did was provide relief materials. At a point, the government proposed a memorandum of understanding between the Ilaje people and the Ibeno people who are our hosts but so far nothing has been done.
“Our condition is just the same as when the incident happened. And it is really unfortunate that we are witnessing this in our own country. The constitution of this country provides that as a Nigerian you can live anywhere you choose to lawfully and it includes the right to own property.
“But it is so unfortunate that for the past 35 years or more that we have been living in Ibeno, terminal specifically, what we notice is that on that fateful day irate youths took over the Yoruba community.
“All the wealth and property that we acquired over the years were taken away within a twinkle of an eye and since then we have been suffering from the pangs of hunger. You can see hunger on the faces of our people yet the government hasn’t done anything to alleviate our sufferings.
“What we are saying is that the amiable governor of Akwa Ibom State should intervene. We want the governor to put us back in our businesses. What is so important to an Ilaje person is the source of his livelihood which is the outboard engines.
“At the time of the incident Ibeno youths targeted our outboard engines, over 500; burnt some and took some away, especially the ones that were newly bought.
“We are told that the Ibeno youths sold our outboard engines for N200, 000 and N300, 000 to make quick money. This is something we bought from our hard-earned money at the rate of N2.450 million per unit.”
The deputy governor, Mr Moses Ekpo has assured us that the government is working on rehabilitating the displaced Ilaje people.