There is palpable fear in Mbak Etoi community in Uyo local government area of Akwa Ibom over the shooting to death of a hunter and farmer, Mr. Ubit Bassey Akpan.
The deceased was said to have been shot by unknown gunmen in his palm tree farm, near his residence last Friday.
Pastor Archibong Kufre, who is a tenant of the deceased, told newsmen that he was in his room when he heard two gunshots at about 3 pm on Friday.
“I was in my room reading the Bible at about 3pm when I heard two gunshots in my landlord’s palm tree farm. Initially, I thought the shots were fired by my landlord because he is also a hunter.
”I didn’t bother to find out what happened as I didn’t suspect that anything had gone wrong. I got to know about the incident two hours later when I heard voices of people crying and shouting.
“That was when I rushed out to the farm which is very close to this house and found people gathering around. I looked closely and found the lifeless body of my landlord in the pool of his own blood on the ground”, he said.
The state police spokesperson, SP Odiko MacDon when contacted said he was not aware of the incident as it has not been reported to the state police command.
However, the Divisional Police Officer in Charge of the area, Mr. Ndifreke Iwok confirmed the incident and said the police had evacuated and deposited the body of the deceased at the mortuary.
Iwok said though the community was notorious for cult activities, the police was investigating the incident to ascertain if was cult-related or outright assassination.
A native of the community who pleaded not to be named disclosed lamented that the village was under the siege of cultists, adding that even traditional rulers were members of one cult group of the other.