The Commissioner of Police (CP) in Cross River, Mr Olusegun Omosanyin, has threatened to carry out a disarmament operation in Biakpan and Etono communities in Biase Local Government Area.
Omosanyin disclosed this to newsmen on Thursday in Calabar during an interview on the renewed hostility between the communities over a parcel of land.
The crisis between the communities has been unresolved for decades leading to fresh hostilities in the last three months.
The CP said both communities have given the state and local government a lot of trouble, while they refused to honour the command invitation three times.
According to him, the State Security Adviser (SSA) had been in the communities more than four times to preach the need for peace.
“The people of Biakpan claimed to have Supreme Court judgement that allows them to acquire Etono but that is not what we are talking about, it is the security breach that happens intermittently in these communities.
“Atimes, they would kidnap from either side, maybe injure their victims or even get them killed and I have warned them that the way they are going, they are pushing the government to the brink.
“We are going to move to both communities and disarm their gunmen.
“We have invited all the youth leaders and their assistants, none of them honoured our invitations and even vowed never to honour police invitations,” he said.
The CP said that he had informed the elders of both communities to do something and ensure their youths drop arms and embrace peace or face a disarmament operation that would cut across both communities.
He said the disarmament operation would be a joint operation that would involve all the security agencies in the state including the military.
“I have told them that we would ensure that both communities are cordoned while we carry out our search to recover all those weapons they are being used to perpetrate wanton killings and crimes,” Omosanyin said.
