Police have arrested 10 local chiefs accused of murder in a land dispute with neighbours after which 13 burnt corpses were recovered, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.
The corpses were found after a weekend dispute between the rival Boje and Nsadop communities in southeastern Cross River State that also led to the burning of dozens of houses and churches.
“About 10 chiefs from Boje community were arrested yesterday (Tuesday) on the orders of the state governor. They (authorities) want to charge them… with murder,” Nakanda Iyadim, a spokesman of the governor, told AFP.
“As we speak, they are in police detention pending further investigation,” he said by telephone.
According to an official statement governor Liyel Imoke met local leaders of Boje and Ndadop communities on Tuesday in Calabra, the state capital, and said that the action of Boje people was “unacceptable and condemnable.”
“The Boje people took the laws into their hands and invaded Nsadop to wreak havoc… and devastated a community beyond recognition,” he added in the statement.
Governor’s chief spokesman, Patrick Ugbe, told AFP that about 90 percent of the houses in Nsadop were burnt down in the attack. A dusk to dawn curfew is now in force in the two villages and surrounding areas.
The land in dispute, located between the two communities, has been confiscated, an official statement said.
Unrest linked to land disputes has broken out on a number of occasions in recent years in Nigeria, a country of 150 million people and with some 250 different ethnic groups.