- Olumba Reports Warring Community To Gov, AIG
Foreigners who have become used to visiting Biakpan, Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State, the birth place of Olumba Olumba Obu, are no more comfortable embarking on their religious tourism expedition, following the lingering communal crisis between the community and the neighbouring Etono 2 community.
The fear is that the development will greatly impact on the economy of the community, which has, in decades past, been playing host to scores of tourists from within and outside Nigeria, as they seek spiritual solutions to their issues.
This much was told the governor, Senator Bassey Otu, by a delegation from Olumba, during a visit, where they urged the governor to hasten and call the warring communities to order.
The visit of to the governor was part of efforts to draw the attention of the government to the lingering crisis. Apart from visiting the governor, Olumba has equally sought the intervention of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG.
The delegation from Olumba had told the governor that his intervention was urgently needed because “it is when the atmosphere is peaceful that our brethren and religious tourists, especially foreign nationals will feel safe to resume regular visitations to the birth place of the sole spiritual head of the universe to sought for spiritual solutions to their problems and also, receive healings to their diverse health challenges.”
They added: “Exigency has promptly demanded that we on the instructions of the Holy Father meet with you to express firstly; our deep worries with
regards to the inability of our brethren to embark on annual pilgrimage
to the Holy land of Biakpan due to the inter-communal crisis between
Biakpan and Etono 2 communities.
“Regrettably, the recent violent attacks and counter attacks on both communities hav posed serious security threats and put on hold all our programmes in Biakpan and environs.
“It is indeed sad and worrisome because there cannot be any form of
development that will be achieved amidst such a dangerous situation
as the religious tourists schedules to regularly pay homage to the
birthplace of the Sole Spiritual Head of the Universe is adversely
hampered; obviously, the State Government’s developmental efforts
too, will slowdown thereby reducing economic benefits to the people
within that part of Cross River State.
“We have been instructed by the Holy Father, His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu to inform His Excellency that, physically, serious efforts had been made to reconcile the two communities at the very beginning of the conflict a couple of months ago by The Holy Father.
“Messages were sent to invite leaders of the two communities to a peace talk and indeed equal quantities of relief materials were provided for the two communities by the Holy Father, though Etono community rejected items sent to them.
“In fact, concerning the invitation to peace talk, only Biakpan community’s representatives turned up while Etono 2 representatives refused to honour the invitation.
“This caused The Father to suspend the meeting and did not even attend to Biakpan people since Etono was absent. It is pertinent to categorically declare that His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu as a Father of all, epitomizing peace, love, unity and oneness of mankind, is not, cannot, and will not be involved in the crisis directly or indirectly and had directed us to in the course of this engagement earnestly appeal to our God- fearing governor of Cross River state to prioritize the restoration of peace by permanently resolving the conflict between the two sister communities.”
The delegation also complained about the land slide at Lemna, Ikot Effanga, in the Cross River State capital, which they said was seriously affecting a mega private farm as well as a radio station, and sought the governor’s urgent intervention.
They said “the magnitude of the slide is alarming and beyond the
resources of the farm in question and private individuals living in the
area.
“It will interest you to know that the Royal farms is a multi-agricultural business enterprise contributing greatly to food production, employment and to the overall GDP in the State. The Sparkling FM radio station is no doubt making waves in the industry of information dissemination, education and entertainment of the people of Cross River State and beyond.”
In their continued push for peace in Biakpan, Olumba has also sought the assistance of the police. In a letter to the AIG, through their lawyer, Justice Osai Ahiakwo, the church said “prior to the recent dastard acts of killings and burning down of houses, leader of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star has made several attempts at calling on the warring communities to broker peace.
“Sometime in the month of August, 2025, The Holy Father sent His emissaries to the Executive Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency Senator Prince Bassey Otu with the sole aim of calling on Cross River State Government to deplore every legitimate security measures to quell the crisis.
“As part of the message conveyed to His Excellency was the serious efforts made by His Holiness to bring about peace amongst the two communities.
Earlier, The Holy Father invited leaders from both communities for dialogue, whilst large quantities of relief materials were provided by The Holy Father to the victims of the communal crisis.
“But the people of Etono II Community rejected the entreaties, including the relief materials, vowing to continue in the fight.”
They said whereas Olumba had reported the matter to the police command in Calabar on the crisis, they were shocked to have received a letter inviting Olumba for questioning in respect of allegations of illegal possession of firearms brought against the church by the Etono 2 people.
“It was disclosed that the same Etono II community petitioned the Commissioner of Police alleging unlawful possession of firearms in the Legacy Hall. Being a law abiding religious body and considering the weighty allegations of unlawful possession of firearms, promotion of native war and road block against its members, the leadership of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star mandated its counsel to attend the interview session with the Commissioner of Police at his office of the State Command, Calabar.
“Without waiting for the police to carry out their investigation over the alleged unlawful possession of firearms, promoting native war and blocking of roads, the Etono II community people went ahead to set the Legacy Hall on fire claiming to be the owners of the land where the Legacy Hall is situated.
“The Nigeria Police Force is established to carry out the general duties specifically provided under Section 4 of the Police Act 2020 which confers on the Police the duties to prevention and detection of crime, apprehend and prosecute offenders, preserve law and order and ultimately protect life and property.
“Our client (Olumba) will not at this stage, fold their arms and watch the people of Etono II community take laws into their hands to perpetrate such heinous crimes, hence, this call to save the lives of our members and by extension the entire people of Biakpan community.
“We hereby appeal to the Assistant Inspector General of Police to come to the rescue of our client whose place of worship has been desecrated and suffered colossal loss of huge sums of money.”
