[1][2][8][9] The abolishment of several customs insidiously used in the past to eliminate potential candidates to the stool of the Obong, made the matter more complex.

[10] In a bid to swiftly solve the leadership crisis, Acting Consul Easton crowned Orok Edem-Odo as the Obong of Calabar on 15 March 1880.

[9] The crowning of Obong Edem-Odo only aggravated the Chiefs of Old Calabar who were displeased with the foisting of a king on the people against their wishes.

Ross choice of candidacy was due to his belief that the next monarch would advance the cause of Christianity and stamp out non-Christian practices.

'[12] The antagonism between both ministers had reached a peak that an independent enquiry was set-up by the Scottish mission to investigate the cause of their quarrel.

[12] Prince James believed that by wooing the British, he would receive support for his claim to the throne.

[12][13] Thus, he wrote severally to the British stressing his active Christian life as a justification for his elevation which he believed differentiated him from Prince Orok Edem-Odo.

[14] Kannan K. Nair describes Orok's reign as a "melancholy period in Calabar history", further stating that several complaints were lodged against his administration.

[16] Treaty of 1884 With the inability of the Eyamba ward to secure the Obongship and the office of the Iyamba Ekpe Efik Iboku, they chose to push for the annexation of Calabar by the British.

[14] Several letters were sent to the foreign office by the Eyamba Ward, complaining of the "barbarities" of Obong Orok, the violent acts of Prince Archibong Edem and further demanding for the country's annexation as the only resolution to the troubles at Calabar.

[14] The push for annexation albeit spiteful was the made by the Eyamba ward to secure British protection for themselves as Prince Archibong Edem had killed one of their people and imprisoned two dozen.

It was also decided that should the public peace be again disturbed, the guilty party would be subject to a fine of fifty puncheons of oil for the payment of which the town would be held responsible.

[18][19] Declining trade According to Oku, In the commercial fields, there were price fluctuations in the oil market and these affected political events in Lagos and Calabar for although the unrest in Calabar, after 1879 originated from the struggle for office it might have been aggravated by the fall in prices which were described as extremely good between 1883 and 1884 when Britain established the protectorate but after this period, 'plunged to their all-time low.

[20]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.

In 1888, Consul Johnston halted the trading activities of twenty-three Efik traders who were in debt to the British agents.

[25] Obong Orok had a fleet of seventy war canoes which on the average contained about twenty men each.

[27] According to Goldie, The Consul took the unwise course of inviting the Efik people to make war on Ndem Eno, and an expedition was fitted out.