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‘Save Cross River’s carved stones from cross border theft’

By J.K. Obatala
14 August 2016   |   1:36 am
An official of the Ikom Local Government Council has issued a desperate appeal for federal and state government intervention to salvage Cross River State’s famous “monoliths” (intricately carved stones, usually arrayed in circles).
The endangered carved stones

Endangered carved stone

An official of the Ikom Local Government Council has issued a desperate appeal for federal and state government intervention to salvage Cross River State’s famous “monoliths” (intricately carved stones, usually arrayed in circles).

“I am appealing to government at all levels,” urged Secretary, Ikom Tourism and Culture Committee (ITCC),the council’s cultural watchdog, Mr. Vincent Etop, “especially the Federal Ministry of Information Culture, to come to our aid.”

Etop is calling specifically for a resumption of work on the partially installed Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) monitoring system. Work began in 2012, he said, but was subsequently abandoned. Etop complained that many monuments in the 40 or so stone circles scattered around the Ikom and Ogoja Local Government Areas are still outside the GPS system.

As a result, he lamented, quite a number of these precious stones are being lost.

Said the official, “The monitoring system helps stem the devastating tide of breakage, theft and illegal sale of carved stones over the Cameroonian border”.

He cited the recent example of “two beautifully carved male and female figures” in Ayughasa in Ikom LGA, “which are no more to be found. They have stolen them away, mostly across the border to Cameroun”.

The stone circles identified so far, Etop explained, are located largely within the Bakor clan areas of Cross River State, which are about an hour’s drive from the Cameroonian border.

Dealers in cultural artefacts simply cross the border during the day, conspire with ignorant and unscrupulous villagers, then return by night to break up the monuments and cart away the part bearing the carvings, Etop informed.

“They have their men all around us,” he explained. “But we cannot know who the culprits are until they have struck and the dastardly deed is done.”

According to Etop, the Cameroonian criminals pay the villagers anything from N700,000 to N1 million for the stones, depending on how intricate and well-executed the artistic work is.

“To the inhabitants of these impoverished villages, who have little or no appreciation of their precious artistic heritage,” he said, “this seems like a large sum of money. But it is only a tiny fraction of what the Cameroonian dupers will get from buyers of Nigeria’s stolen heritage in Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.”

Stone2Etop expressed “deep regret” that the GPS monitoring system, in which satellite technology is employed to detect the unauthorized movement of any monument, has not been completed.

He noted that former General Manager, Research and Planning, Cross River State Tourism Bureau, Dr. Bassey Esu, had headed a team of experts and administrators, which introduced the system four years ago, but that it was yet to be completed.

Etop, who was chairman of ITCC’s “Sites and Attractions” sub-committee at the time, and a member of the team, said the monitoring system had only been installed at several locations in the Ikom and Ogoja LGAs before Esu departed.

“But after he left,” the official said, “the installation work fizzled, leaving a large number of carved stones without the protection of the GPS security system that has caused many loses.”

Etop added that in 2008, the ravages of the illicit cross-border trade prompted the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to place the circles on its list of the world’s 100 most endangered heritage sites and objects.

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