A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mba Ukweni, has advised Cocoa farmers who were brought in by Governor Otu’s administration in Bendeghe Ekiem Etung Local Government Area of Cross River State to allow a competent court of law to adjudicate their agitations.

Speaking on Sunday through Barr. Emmanuel Orji, who is from the area and works with Mba Ukweni, the Senior Lawyer, explained that “Since there is an interlocutory injunction from Etung High Court with respect to the farm under contention, the right thing to do is to allow the court to decide on the matter.”

It would be recalled that in June, 2024, the Cross River State High court in Efrayah,, Etung Local Government Area, issued an interlocutory injunction restraining respondents (those brought in by Otu) or their agents from harassing or evicting claimants (those brought in by Ayade) from a 12- hectares cocoa farmland in the government owned Cocoa estate.

The cocoa estate in the area was, before now, leased to some persons by Prof. Ben Ayade’s administration, but the incumbent government of Senator Bassey Edet Otu insists on privatising it, a situation that infuriated those who had earlier gotten the farms and which has led to an intractable crisis in the area.

But Ukweni, who is a Lawyer to those who had occupied the farm before the current administration came on board, said the risk of forcibly entering the farm by those recently allotted the plots could possibly lead to contempt of court, thus amounting to imprisonment.

His representative, Emmanuel Orji, who had interaction with the farmers, said: “I told those who wanted to hear that an interlocutory order of injunction will remain pending, existing and extant until the matter is determined.

“Whether the matter takes 10 years, so long as an interlocutory order of an injunction has been made, no other order will be made until that matter is determined one way or the other; that is why I am here.

“It is only on that note that Mba Ukweni (SAN), detailed me as a son of the soil to come to Bendeghe Ekiem and that whenever they discuss their matters, that I should only explain the implications of that order and disobedience to the order what it will entail.

“Mba sent a copy of the letter to me, attached with an order from the High Court of Etung, given sometime in the month of June 2024.” Orji maintained.

In his remarks, Chairman of the crisis management committee of the Mbume block of clans, Ntufam Mosses Ndep, stated that the message passed as regards the court order was explicit and has been passed accurately.to those concerned.

Meanwhile, every effort to get the reaction of other disputed beneficiaries who were allotted the cocoa farms by the present administration failed.

One of them who did want his name in print said: “We cannot react to that now. We will do so after we finish our meeting with the government.”