by crossriverwatch admin
On the 13th of January, 2014 the Mbarakom community in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria was plunged into confusion as a father of three, Mr. Silvanus Ekpe Edet Okon, a ‘son of the soil’, who has been residing in Oban and has not visited his home because of certain age long issues, brought a mind boggling message home that his three year old daughter, Ntunkai Mma-Abumi is a reincarnated queen in the village who had died and was buried over 20 years ago and bears some words of truth that will salvage the community of its conflicts.
Mr. Silvanus Ekpe Edet Okon, a furniture maker narrates his encounter with what he calls ‘the hand work of God’ to CrossRiverWatch. He said, “The first message came in 2003 before she was born in 2010 to go home and make peace for what I have no knowledge about but I ignored it; when she was 2 years old I received the message again that I should take her to Mbarakom, her place to make peace, I tried being stubborn but the fact that I was told that she is coming on her way and I need to make peace that some day she will come and make right the wrongs in the village but I took it for granted at the time because it never made sense to me.
“I haven’t been here for a very long time and as I heard that I should come here and make peace I was afraid because of the happenings here where people where dying like flies, so many mysterious things were happening but as a result of the vision I got and I came to verify the things just few days ago since 2003. I was told to the face that she’s a queen that when I come I will see her things and that the village is not in order. That there is death, bloodshed and other violence. After a lot of challenges resulting from my disobedience to go home, when I came finally, all that I was told and I saw like joke became true and I started panicking”.
Continuing he said, “Years later I couldn’t get here until she became 3 years old and I was seriously tormented by the spirit of God that revealed all this to me. She’s a queen from my family, so as we came we did the ‘house peace’ which was the first she instructed me to do before going out to the entire village.
“My accident and misfortune after a successful business career as a contracting furniture carpenter was because I disobeyed to deliver the divine message and denied the reality for 11 years; I became jobless till now everything turned upside down. There was a day I almost died, my wife and other people around me were praying then I called on my wife and told her that they said I should go to Mbarakom else I will die, the spirit of God spoke into my ears and I wasn’t myself for over 5 hours and when I did regain myself the people around me started narrating what I said and I was surprised because I was not myself while talking and the things they said I said were unbelievable to me as a canal man”.
“One day as we were having family fasting, on our way back from Church she said we shouldn’t branch the house else she will die and then she fell on the main road and didn’t get up until we brought her here.
“Before now each time we want to come to Mbarakom her mother will refuse saying the case is too much, because of the kind of things we do hear at Oban where we are about Mbarakom, we were afraid that the kind of message we carry might result into a bloody situation not just for us but might split the community apart. Later we decided to come after a lot of problems we were encountering because of insubordination. On arrival on the second Saturday (18/1/2014) I went to the Ntufam council to deliver my message and the requirements were brought; beans and meat, cooked plantain and other things.
“There is a way I was instructed to prepare them and I was told that the ancestors are crying that a pastor should do an opening prayer; the pastor is an indigenous pastor of this village by birth. I started as instructed to spray corn round the community from the first to last stream of the village (Njaghachang and Aye-Abam).
“The first Saturday (13th January 2014) she instructed that peace be made from the family compound because it’s a royal and big family, when we did she said there are three staffs of office in her house (before Ekpe hall Mbarakom) that I should bring which I did and it convinced me that I have started the journey aright. She also instructed that her granddaughter who happens to be Charley Ikpeme’s mother now should sew a royal cloth for her and prepare her first food and this was done, Ayan Ekpang as called in Efik (Ekpang Asu in Ejagham) was the food”, Sylvester added.
The present mother of the girl, Mrs. Maria Edet Ndifon, a hair dresser shared her experiences during pregnancy saying it was the strangest period of her life because she has never heard nor seen such pregnancy with its demanding discomforts.
Her words: “During pregnancy what I experienced with her differ from her two elder ones which made me wonder and sought for answers because the signs were completely alien to me, when she was one year she started telling me things I could not comprehend, things a one year old child will hardly say. She said she is a great woman of Mbarakom then I wondered because long time before we started conceiving we’ve never visited Mbarakom because of the things happening there and I became worried as to how this child would get to know that these things are happening.
“When she told her father that she’s a great woman in her village, the most of it is that we were asked not to name her that it’s the duty of the ‘Ekan’ which is a traditional age grade like group to name her and she was named Ntunkai Mma-Abumi which we learnt was her name then. She also told us that her staff and stone she usually place her leg to take her bathe and rest at times is in her house, that her land and other belonging were also there in Mbarakom where her house used to be, she continued which shocked me to my bone marrow and out of fear I told my husband not to take it out”.
She disclosed that “For some time my husband and I were disobedient to the instructions but because of what started happening we were forced to take the trip and all the things she mentioned were confirmed to be true and available which we saw with our own eyes, they went to the land where she built her house but since it was a mud house and no one to care for it as we were rightly told it collapsed but the land is not occupied. And the traditional rights she asked were fully done”.
Adding that “she cried out that in the village innocent souls are dying, calamity everywhere, no peace, so she said everything in terms of the traditional rights should begin with prayers and that the prayer point should be let the pouring of blood, killing and all evil things be taken away and that the dethroned king of the village, HRM Ntufam Felix Itakpang Ekpo Nkibong be told that what does not belong to him he shouldn’t collect by force, he should stop oppressing the young ones and he shouldn’t rule the people the way he feels in tears. As soon as these pronouncements were made the youths came and heard for themselves.
“Her mission was to cleans the village after showing where their problems lie and the way forward, she then asked them that after praying they should send a child to the last stream in Mbarakom to fetch water and bring the water back to her, then the feet of the elders be washed and the water poured in front and sides of the village and that the water be brought in ‘Bansada cup’, that’s an olden days cup made from brass used by the royal house hold and that the dethroned Ntufam and her husband should sit on the ground and libation using only water be used with the following enchantments: let peace come, let all the killing stop, let the light shine again in the village and that what belongs to the community he, the dethroned king should not eat alone but give to the people what belongs to them”.
Recalling a past incident she said, “One day when my husband was sitting at home that’s before she was born, when my second child was born someone spoke into his ears asking if he had gone to Mbarakom as instructed in that moment he couldn’t hear anything, his body was shaking seriously as if he wants to give up then he called on me that please ‘pray for me’ and say that he will go to Mbarakom and deliver the message that more time be given to him which I did in tears”.
The newly crowned king of the village HRH Ntufam Sylvester Etim Eta-Agbor told CrossRiverWatch that, “Before now the community was in total shamble and God in His own way sent the girl to come and show the people the truth. Ntunkai was a grandparent here long time ago before many of us were born and she was a queen who now reincarnated into the family of one of her grandchild who resides in Oban for the purpose of the Almighty. When she came to make us believe her she showed us where she was buried where today no house is built upon it but just a piece of land full of thick grass” adding that “we are aware she died in the year 1980”.
The new king proclaimed that “If I’m the chosen king of this community as proclaimed by his messenger then the problems we are passing through will come to an end gradually as we work towards it”.
Mrs. Veronica Steven an elderly woman in her 50’s who accepted that Ntunkai Mma-Abumi is her grandmother told CrossRiverWatch that “What convinced me she’s my grandmother is that there’s a stone she sits on to bathe, when she came she took me there and said that this is her house that whatever we want to do let me give her that her stone she uses to sit and take her bathe and her staffs first before anything”.
Recounting she said, “When I was small I grew with my grandmother not my mother. Most of what she do tell me are things that only my grandmother do tell me and of recent when we are chatting, there are some things she would say that only my grandmother knows and after she reveals some things to me, at a point she will just stop and say I should not worry she won’t say more because when I tell people they will ask questions that I won’t be able to answer and will eventually make them doubt her and her mission. And what she said is exactly what my grandmother does while chatting. Then when I tried bathing her she requested that I must tie her rapper which I did just as my granny does, when we place the stone and gave her the three staffs she then told us pointing to one saying this is not mine, this is mine and many other things gave me the conviction because when she was alive before she bathes she will place her legs on that stone even when resting”.
Mrs. Veronica added that “At a point she insisted that before bringing her out we must sew ‘Onyoyo’ and that we must get her that shining combs of the olden days used to decorate her hair in the royal style and as soon as all this were done she became excited. When the youths came to my house where she stays because she had earlier told us that apart from my house she will stay nowhere, as they came she asked them with her mouth that does anyone of them know Etim and they responded that there are so many Etim in this village as the name is a common name, after then they started mentioning the various names of the people bearing the name until after a long list Etim Etta-Agbor’s name was mentioned and she nodded her head in a sign of yes, then said he will pour corn traditionally and will go to Njaghachang and Awi boundary and upon returning let all the chiefs of Njaghachang and Aye-Abam come because they are one”.
The three year old girl revealed that, “The dethroned king, HRM Ntufam Felix Itakpang Ekpo Nkibong is not the rightful one, when the other one died the king makers didn’t follow the true path to crown the next king, they manipulated it and choose who they desired other than who God chooses. Which as a result Ntufam Felix was crowned which brought all the problems we in this village were passing through, in 2003 he was just a chief in the community and in the same year the contest was on and it was the bloodiest we have seen from the selection process which the community was burnt and he, Ntufam Felix was chosen and things turned around for the worst”.
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