At the Hart Commission of Enquiry, a different account of Efik history and migrations was given by Etubom Edem Ekpenyong Efiom Ededem who represented the Okoho Group. While the Adak Uko Group linked the Efiks to Sudan and Gold Coast (now Ghana), the account of the Okoho Group linked Efik history to Uruan and Arochukwu. According to the Commissioner:
69. Etubom Edem E. E. Adam made the following statement when he gave evidence:-
“We (i.e., the Efiks) first settled at Uruan. We were at Uruan for a long time, intermarried and had children. Before we got to Uruan, as the story goes, the Efiks originated from a place called Niger (i.e. on the Niger- no definite location).
“The Efiks had trouble there and migrated from the Niger to Arochuku and settled at Ibom. The Aros wanted the Efik immigrants to worship their Long Juju called Ibiritam or Chuku, but the Efiks refused and said that they were worshippers of Abasi Ibom. The Aros asked them to get away from their town if they were not prepared to worship Ibiritam and so a religious dispute arose. During this dispute the Aros prepared to compel their wishes on the Efiks by a show of force. The Efiks, aware of this move, hired Ohafia and Abam mercenaries; but the Aros getting wind of this escaped and concealed themselves in the bush. The Ohafia and Abam people did not see the Aro people to fight and so they asked the Efiks to pay them costs in compensation for the booty they would have collected by despoiling the Aro settlement. They were given many gifts but each time they said it was insufficient. As our people could not meet their demands they decided to make their escape to Uruan. The Ohafia and Abam people seeing neither the Aros whom they were hired to fight, nor the Efiks who hired them to fight went back home and the Arochuku or Inokon people came out from their hiding when the trouble was over.
We remained at Uruan for a period of years, married there and had children. We lived happily with the Ibibios of Uruan until one of our sons died when we got one of the Uruan boys to bury along with our own dead child as a form of sacrifice. When the people of Uruan learnt of this, they were greatly annoyed and took counsel together and decided to drive us away. When we were leaving Uruan we took away their Ntinya as well as their daughters we had married. We settled at Ikpa Ene, an island on the Cross River in the Uruan District. When the people of Uruan discovered the loss of their Ntinya they suspected we had made away with it and came after us, intending to retrieve it by a strategem. They came wet, dripping with the river water and asking our men folk to allow them a place by their fireside to warm themselves. Our people were taken in by their outward show of wretchedness, but after warming themselves they began to kill the Efiks, hence the saying:
“Ama okut Ibibio kuno ikang. Idem amasat Ibibio eye owot owo. (When you see an Ibibio man asking for fire to warm himself, be on the look out, or else, after warming himself he will kill you and your people).”
70. Etubom Edem E. E. Adam amplified his verbal evidence with a written memorandum from which I glean the following historical or more correctly quasi-historical material.
71. Creek Town is a far older Efik town than Duke Town. The ancestors of Duke Town and Henshaw Town people all migrated from Creek Town. There was a Creek Town man named Efiom Ekpo who had two sons and two daughters. When we were at Uruan he was recognized as Obong and he was in possession of the Ntinya.
The four children of Efiom Ekpo were:-
1. Ansa Efiom (male).
2. Edem Efiom (male).
3. Okoho Efiom (female).
4. Odo Efiom (female).
After the death of Efiom Ekpo, Ansa Efiom became head of the Efiom Ekpo family in Creek Town. Edem Efiom was brother of the whole blood with Okoho Efiom both of whom were of the half-blood with Ansa Efiom and Odo Efiom. Twins were customarily destroyed, and the mother of the twins kept in seclusion by the other inhabitants as an unclean thing. Okoho Efiom happened to give birth to twin boys named Offiong Okoho, the elder, and Efiom Okoho, the younger. Edem Efiom deeply pitying his sister took her and her twins to a place known as Nsutana on the right bank of the Calabar River where he continued to care for them. The boys grew up and spotted better land than the one they were occupying. Edem Efiom went back to Creek Town and Okoho and her people together with her children later crossed to the Calabar side of the river. There, Okoho died and was buried. After her death, the two young men, Offiong Okoho and Efiom Okoho, settled on the Duke Town side of the river and became by their sojourn the founders of Duke Town.
72. As the Ataka settlement grew, the children of Okoho determined to become an independent Efik community and, therefore, they built an Ekpe shed (which is the sign of an independent community) in Duke Town. There was trouble as to who should erect the principal pillar in front of the Ekpe shed. According to custom, the eldest male of the family erects the principal pillar because he is the head of the family. The people of Ansa Efiom claimed the right of being descendants of the oldest male child of Efiom Ekpo and wanted to put up the pillar, but they were opposed by the children of Okoho, who whilst conceding that Ansa was oldest and head, and even in this case only head in Creek Town, stated that Offiong Okoho and Efiom Okoho were the actual founders of Atakpa. The children of Okoho who were then waxing quite strong in number erected the pillar and Ansa Efiom’s people were obliged to leave the town in anger and disgust to dwell amongst the Enwangs who subsequently moved to Efiat-Oron.
73. Evidence was also given by witnesses on this side that the people of Obutong migrated from Creek Town to Atakpa as a result of internecine war in Creek Town.
The people of Cobham Town also left Otung in Creek Town owing to domestic disagreement and settled at their present abode in Atakpa. After the settlement of Duke Town or Atakpa by the Okoho twins and Edem Efiom, the children of Ansa Efiom came later and were given land to settle by Offiong Okoho. That faction also admitted that the children of Atai and Efiom Ekpo came over to Creek Town together.
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