Stream Where Water Changes Colour 3 Times a Day and Cures Sicknesses in Cross River

Biakpan, Cross River – Ever wondered about the miracle of nature before? In Biakpan Community in Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State, Southeastern Nigeria, lies a stream where the water changes colour three times a day and even healing the sick.

The Biakpan stream, also known as “The Living Spring,” can change to light green, dark brown or pure water and so on. Over 4 million people across the globe have visited the stream in the last half a century, according to the locals.

Below are the testimonies of some of those who recently visited the Biakpan stream:

Madam Nkechi Blessing Nwobodo, who lives in Ifo Local Government Area in Ogun State, is a middle-aged woman of Enugu State origin. She was reported to have excreted pieces of glass after bathing in and drinking Biakpan water! This incident happened in October last year.

Nkechi Blessing Nwobodo

Nkechi explained that she had suffered intermittent abdominal pains for some years. Having heard much about the stream, she resolved to join other women who had planned a trip to Biakpan. “I resolved to fetch and drink the water, hoping it would help abate the pains.

“I told myself that I would not drink any other water throughout that day except the Biakpan water. I resolved to drink it because I had been experiencing unusual abdominal pains on the right side of my stomach. This pain would become severe once I ate. This had affected me for many years despite Western medicines and other treatments.

“Following continual drinking of the water, I felt a strong urge to visit the loo to defecate. I had felt like some objects were forcing themselves to come out from my anus. I was scared and very worried. I tried to touch my anus to feel what it was but it pierced my finger.

“I forced out the poo to free myself. And behold, pieces of bottles came out alongside, tearing my anus. Goose pimples came over me.

“Since I forced them out, I no longer feel such pains. Glory be to God.”

Like Nkechi, a businessman, Simon Greenstone from Rivers State said he took his 14-year-old son, who was epileptic and had suffered some inexplicable attacks, to dip in the mysterious stream in about 2003.

“I remember that I spent three days in that community, bathing my son in that water. When I returned to Eleme, my base, ever since my son has neither experienced the spiritual attacks nor the epileptic seizures,” he said.

When interviewed, Ekpezu Eyo, a native confirmed how one Mr Matthew Akpan from Abak LGA of Akwa Ibom State, a leprous and lame, had to relocate to reside in their community many years ago after he bathed in their stream and became whole.

Matthew was plagued with assorted ailments and became lame as a result. “He was brought to dip continually in the stream. Within one month, he walked and all the ailments vanished just like that. He had to bring his family, bought a land, built his house and settled here.”

There has been increasing attention on the Biakpan stream due to the testimonies emanating from people of different nationalities about the potency of the slow-running, knee-deep, mysterious stream.

According to natives, the stream changes colours, at least three times a day. They said it can change to light green, dark brown or pure water and so on.

The natives freely bathe in the water. Despite assorted persons bathing away their ailments in the stream, they themselves wash their laundries, and they claim that nobody is at any risk of contamination by any contagious diseases.

“Nobody is afraid to fetch it for domestic use and to drink without purifying it. Indeed several thousands of people bath and scoop it for personal uses”, Ekpezu said.

The natives and non-natives have insisted that this stream has the potency to purify and cleanse and that it also has healing and curative powers.

As a result, in the last 50 years of frequent influxes of seekers of cures to their ailments, more than four million persons from many countries are reported to have visited and bathed in the stream.

These statistics were provided by Biakpan elders as well as a committee called the Biakpan Pilgrimage Committee headed by Patriarch Mike Ntuk.

Natives disclosed that the stream surrounds their community which has a population of over 20,000. They believe that the stream has often been a source of their strength in times of threats and hostility.

History has it that the Biakpan people are hardly defeated in any skirmishes, but they can only react when attacked.

Biakpan village has boundaries with seven other communities, most of them in Abia State, who sometimes are said to be hostile to them.

The village is composed of 12 families which take turns to produce a king. They have varying levels of kings. They even have what they call ‘Akpan Society’, i.e. the First Born Sons cult which enforces orders of the Paramount chief and the council of Chiefs. They said the name of the village is shortened to mean ‘village of the firstborn son’. Listen to their language. It is an admixture of Ibibio and other dialects.

His Majesty (Dr) Onun Enun Bassey, Paramount Chief of Biakpan

The Paramount Chief of Biakpan, His Majesty (Dr) Onun Enun Bassey, spent about 20 years in Russia, where he lived and studied to become a specialist surgeon. He was born in the late 1940s.

Hear him, “We are over 20,000 in population but many of our people now live outside the community in search of economic opportunities. However, they must return home regularly. We are agrarian community. As a border community, we’re hemmed in between seven Abia State communities with attendant communal pressures.

“Well, I’ve tried my best to douse such pressures and tensions. I believe that instead of always resorting to knives and sticks, we can always dialogue for peace which I have achieved greatly.

“I hear people say that we’re a special people. I dont really subscribe to that. Perhaps it is because of our stream. We’ve lived so long with it. I have heard people make many claims about the water. I do agree much with them. But you know as a trained medical scientist, we believe that mystical or mysterious things hardly exist. I dont believe in too many mysteries. Mysteries are what you have not been able to learn and understand. In medicine, when there’s a cholera outbreak, for instance, we as scientists will want to unravel the cause. But ordinary people will see it differently without bothering about research.

“Well, I dont dispute those that have testimonies about the stream. I am sure that there’s something in that water definitely. I have seen thousands of people from different countries flock into my community continually to bathe in our stream for cleansing purposes and also fetch the water for further use in their stations.

“I feel quite good to see influxes of people come for religious, tourism or cleansing purposes. They spend good sums of money, relish our foods, and buy our farm and other products. That way, our local economy is boosted. And my people do smile.”

Another local chief, Onun Kanu Ogban Eyo, in his early 70s, also attested that even White people are among the pilgrims, tourists and researchers who have visited and bathed in the water.

He expressed happiness that the name of their community is on the world map and has become an international tourism and religious centre.

According to him, “The stream has made our community very special. The stream is known to have cured assorted infirmities whether you bath, drink or sprinkle it. It can as well ward off evil forces”, he claimed.

He said there is a particular spot in the stream that is very deep. He confirmed “The stream usually changes colours in the morning, afternoon and evening. Sometimes it can surge and overflow into the larger community.

“I cannot tell the source of the stream or whether it is magical. Most of my generation were born to see it this way. All I can say is that there’s something about it, and the Almighty Father controls it.”

One Mr Francis Uko, now a priest, who lived in the community as a boy in early 1970, said, “I was brought to Biakpan when I was less than ten years old. I stayed there for about 20 years. I learnt and can speak their language. At that time, it wasn’t opened and developed as it is now. I saw countless people come out of that water with testimonies. Many people come with big containers to fetch the water for use.”

Francis also corroborated that, “I have seen the water changed colours. It does so three times daily.”

A black American bishop, James Crawford Ellerbe from New Cardlyn Rockingham, USA, is reported to have brought 18 other Americans, including White experts, to that community in the 1990s for research.

Thereafter, Ellerbe frequently visited Biakpan and begged that when dies his remains should be buried there.

According to Archbishop Randy Egwu, another native, His wish was reportedly honoured by the community in 2021 when he died at 85.

Due to the popularity and influxes of pilgrims and tourists from all over Nigeria and other African countries, including Europe and America, the Cross River State government has decided to look at ways of enhancing the tourism potential for greater gains.

Former Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in the state, Ntufam Ekpenyong Iso, said the government was interested in bolstering tourism gains in Biakpan.

“Since government is a continuum, Governor Bassey Otu is eager to consolidate the efforts we made to collaborate with Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, BCS, the dominant group entrenching religious tourism in Biakpan. The group has already erected structures at other ‘sacred sites’ which have helped sustain influxes of their faithful and tourists.”

He said influxes have helped to generate IGR for the state and boosted the local economy.

Governor Otu has further directed that Biakpan and other crowd-pulling activities of the group be on the state’s annual tourism calendar from next year.

For instance, they are to feature in this year’s one-month-long annual Christmas Festival which began on 1st December 2024.

A prominent lawyer from the community, Mba Ukweni SAN, urged the state government to complement the efforts of natives such as the founder of the spiritual organisation, BCS, Olumba Olumba Obu, who has single-handedly made their community globally famous by pulling both White and Black people.

Even though he did not mind the environmental and hygienic pressures exerted on the land by the tourists and pilgrims, he called on the government to assist by providing housing facilities for tourists and strengthening security in the community.

In December 2020, the organisation erected a structure to demarcate a part of the stream and called it ‘The Living Spring’.