Social media users fanning embers of war in Cross River, Govt laments 

The Cross River State Government has accused social media influencers of worsening the lingering communal conflict between Iso-Bendeghe and Boje communities in Boki Local Government Area through exaggerated and misleading posts.

The two communities have been locked in a violent land dispute for more than a decade. Despite peace accords and repeated security deployments, the clashes, often erupting without warning, have claimed lives, razed homes, and forced many residents to flee.

Addressing journalists in Calabar on Thursday ahead of the August 18 Boki New Yam Festival, Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Erasmus Ekpang, said online narratives were inflaming tensions rather than promoting reconciliation.

“What you read on social media about the conflict is not 100 per cent true of what is happening in the communities,” Ekpang said. “Social media users are the ones escalating this conflict. They are fanning the embers of war.”

The decades-old hostility intensified in 2010, prompting then Governor Liyel Imoke to confiscate the disputed land in a bid to restore peace. However, intermittent violence has continued to plague the area.

Ekpang urged the youths of Iso-Bendeghe and Boje to lay down their arms and end the cycle of bloodshed. “Killing one another and taking lives you cannot create is not ideal,” he cautioned.

He pledged the government’s readiness to collaborate with community leaders and the Ochibe Boki traditional council to secure a lasting resolution and ensure a complete return to normalcy.