Benue, Cross River: Good neighbours in conflicts that refuse to die

•Some Benue youths rescued from the mob in Cross River and

taken to the Police area command.

By Emma Una

OBANLIKWU — They share borders stretching for tens of kilometres across several local government areas. Their people speak similar dialects, farm the same crops, inter-marry freely and drink from the same rivers. Yet, Benue and Cross River states, two ‘sister’ states bound by geography, culture and blood, find themselves locked in a cycle of perennial conflicts that refuses to die.

From Obanlikwu in northern Cross River, where the state shares a boundary with Kwande Local Government Area of Benue, to Obudu which neighbours Vandeikya, and Yala rubs shoulders with Konshisha and Oju, the story remains the same; two people with one heritage, but constantly at war with each other.