Orok Edem-Odo

The freemen of the various city-states of old Calabar were at liberty to trade as they please with the European traders under the government of the Ekpe society. With more and more British involvement in the internal affairs of Old Calabar, this trade was gradually being hindered. The long history of treaties made between the Chiefs and Kings of Old Calabar and the British culminated to the 1884 treaty which placed the Consul at the same level with the Obong of Calabar and Creek Town respectively. In 1888, Consul Johnston

halted the trading activities of twenty-three Efik traders who were in debt to the British agents. Although Obong Orok was not affected by the injunction, more than half of the leading Efik traders in Old Calabar were affected including Obong Orok's adversaries. Ndem-Eno was a powerful chief of Eniong who lived at Atan Onoyom. He was guarding the Cross River up to Umon and forbade stranger traders from passing directly to trade with the Umon people. Ndem Eno had for some time been seizing canoes and murdering occupants. He owned a large canoe known as “Afrike” and reputed to be about seventy feet long and ten feet wide.