Cocoa farmer raises alarm over missing worker in Cross River

A cocoa farmer in Etung Local Council of Cross River State, Mr Mbu Liku, has raised the alarm over the alleged sudden disappearance of his worker, Mike.
Liku operates within the Agbokim Waterfalls community and the Abonita government-owned cocoa estate.

According to him, 24-year-old Mike was reportedly missing after a group of men, who claimed to be task force members operating within the Abonita cocoa estate, stormed the plantation and bundled three of his workers away.

Liku alleged that his competitor, Mr Asu Njor, has a fair knowledge of the whereabouts of his missing worker.He said Njor, an indigene of Agbokim, cannot inherit someone’s land at Ajassor. Hence, he should be called to order and steer clear of Liku’s family property.

He said: “On Sunday, July 28, I left the village for Calabar only to receive a call that the competitor sent some thugs on the pretence that they were members of a task force who were out to arrest anyone they found in my farm.

“When they got to the farm, they succeeded in bundling three of my workers, took them to the police, and left them in custody. “What I don’t understand is the reason the third worker, Mike, was not among those still in police custody.

“As I speak, one of these workers is still missing. From what I gathered, only two are in police custody, while one is still missing. “I gathered that before the said task force finally whisked away my workers, they were seriously intimidated and frightened by gunshots fired into the air by the task force.

“I don’t know if my competitor has become a government official or cocoa allocation chairman that moves with a task force. What source is he drawing his strength from?”

However, reacting to the allegations, Mr Asu Njor said only two workers were arrested, not three, as Njor claimed. He said: “We saw two of their boys in our cocoa farm, and we arrested them and handed them to the police for stealing our cocoa.

“They live at Okundi, but we caught them on our farm and handed them to the police. We don’t know about any other person he is mentioning. We don’t. The two we arrested were caught harvesting our cocoa, and we did what any law-abiding citizen would have done by handing them to the police.”

Confirming the incident, the officer in charge of the case at Area Command Ikom, Mr Frank Akanonu, said: “We have two 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. I don’t know what you are saying about a missing person.”

When contacted, the spokesperson for the state Police Command, SP Irene Ugbo, said the command had not received any complaint about a missing worker from Etung.