Two middle-aged men died over the weekend in Odukpani, near Calabar, Cross River State, following a knife fight where both inflicted severe knife cuts on each other.

The knife fight took place in a community called Akpap-Okoyong in Odukpani Local Government Area of the state.

An eye witness, Ettenma, who is a resident of the community gave the names of the two men as Edet and Effiong.

According to him, the altercation between the two men began when Effiong went to Edet’s residence with a machete, fuming over the disappearance of a bunch of plantations from his farm and in the ensuing argument, inflicted Edet with knife cuts prompting Edet to also pick up his machete, which was lying beside him to cut his assailant.

He said: “Effiong went to his farm and observed that someone had cut his bunch of plantain and while complaining loudly, someone told him he saw Edet with a bunch of plantain coming from the farm’s direction.

“Effiong then went to Edet’s house to confront him over the missing plantain from his farm and in the ensuing altercation, machetes were used and the two inflicted each other with deep knife cuts.”

He said Effiong out of anger used the knife in his possession to cut Edet, prompting Edet to also pick up the machete beside him to cut Effiong too. Before people could stop them, they had already given each other deep cuts.

“They could not receive adequate medical attention at the health centre due to lack of facilities and equipment to manage the severity of their wounds and they later died because of excessive blood loss and dehydration,” he added.

The tragic incident, he said, has thrown the community into mourning.

Contacted, the state Police Command spokesman, Akata, said investigations were ongoing to “ascertain the cause of such brutal attack by two men on each other with machetes without other members of the community making effort to stop them.” (Vanguard)