https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/05/tension-igbo-neighbours-new-confrontation-7-yr-bloody-war/

•Gov. Obiano, call Aguleri aggressors to order — Umueri
•Police boss rushes to calm frayed nerves

By Odogwu Emeka Odogwu

Aguleri and Umueri communities in Anambra East local government area were engaged in communal war between 1995 and 2002 which claimed hundreds of lives.

But on May 1 when workers were busy reviewing labour issues, the traditional rulers of the two communities, their chiefs and town unions’ leadership were at Otuocha, the local government headquarters, trying to resolve the land dispute between them in the presence of Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Umar Garba.

Ahead of the meeting, Garba had asked the Aguleri and Umueri communities to form a peace committee. The peace committee had eight persons on each side. During a brief meeting inside the council secretariat with the two traditional rulers, Eze Christopher Idigo of Aguleri and Igwe Ben Emeka of Umueri, as well as their President Generals and chiefs, the CP informed them that before the renaming of Umuleri to Umueri after its communal war with Aguleri, the two communities were globally known for peace. He was optimistic that God will use him to make peace between Umueri and Aguleri.


Land as bone of contention

Everybody then drove to the disputed Aguakor land. On arrival, representatives of each of the communities struggled to be heard first. That brought tension which Garba brought under control. The CP expressed worry that Aguleri fought Umueri over the land rather than report to government since the land had been given to government.

The team moved to the boundary at Ohia Aruru where the representatives of Aguleri and Umueri, Godwin Nwazekwu and Mr Chike Odili respectively, presented conflicting versions of the issues at stake, leading to an altercation. Umar asked the peace committee to include a neutral person to serve as tie breaker during deliberations.

The CP told Sunday Vanguard, “There will be peace. God is using us to bring peace between Aguleri and Umueri. There is a committee for peace and there must be peace. I am warning that any person that feels he must create trouble, we will go after that person and deal with him”. Also speaking, Igwe Aguleri, Eze Idigo, appealed to Garba to ensure that only those with calm disposition were allowed in the peace committee to guarantee compromises that will bring peace to the two communities.

On his part, the Igwe Umueri, Igwe Emeka, noted that the CP really wanted to restore peace in the two communities, but said there was still tension over the disputed land that had been donated to government. According to him, sacrifices were needed to ensure peace between Aguleri and Umueri.

Meanwhile, Umueri President General, Pius Okonkwo, in an interview, told Sunday Vanguard that his community was not the aggressor in the communal crisis, calling for the implementation of the White Paper on the Justice Nweze Commission of Inquiry which looked into the matter in 1995, the implementation of a 1977 judgment by Justice P Nnaemeka Agu on the Aguakor land which, according to him, was in Umueri favour and the Supreme Court judgment of 1984.


New attacks

Alleged incursion into the disputed land by some Aguleri natives had sparked fresh trouble in the area following which the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the state allegedly arrested a 70-year-old man, while declaring four others wanted.

Umueri, in fact, wrote a petition to CP Garba, claiming that some people from Aguleri were trespassing on the land by removing sign posts hoisted there and calling for his intervention.

The President General of Umueri General Assembly, Hon Pius Okonkwo, and his Secretary General, Mr. Samuel Mbukwesili, who signed the petition, complained of the breach of police instructions directing the two communities to maintain the peace. The petition read, in part: “May it be recalled that we were invited to your office on the 23rd day of March, 2018 over the trespass on Aguakor Umueri land by Aguleri people. And in submission and respect to your office, we honoured the invitation.

“At the meeting, which was attended by representatives of both communities, you directed that all the newly erected sign posts on the said land be removed. Contrary to your directives, the Aguleri people reluctantly removed the sign posts on the 25th day of March, 2018.

“In defiance to your directives and prior to their removal of the sign posts, the Aguleri people, with some armed people, commenced the erection of two permanent structures on the land and the structures are being erected in the night and they are heavily armed in order to instigate and provoke inter-communal crisis between the two communities.

“Suffice it to bring to your notice that these illegal activities by the Aguleri people pose serious threat to the lives of Umueri indigenes and, if not stopped, may breach public peace and cause inter-communal crisis between the two communities.

“We, therefore, implore you to use your good office to ensure that they remove the two structures erected by them in defiance to your instructions; desist from embarking on further activities on the said land; as well as ensure that Umueri sign posts removed and seized be returned to us “We also implore the CP to assign a police patrol team to the area for maintenance of law and order.”

However, the President General of Aguleri Town Union, Mr. Mike Ejoor, said his community had no issue with Umueri, saying that what might be happening in the area could be land dispute between families. He said: “Since the end of the 1995-2002 communal crisis, we have not had any crisis with Umueri. Aguleri, as a community, has no common land, but it is not unusual for families that have common boundary to have misunderstanding over land.

“For instance, my family has a boundary with Umueri and, if there is any land dispute in the area, it is between the two families”. Okonkwo confirmed the petition and lamented why the Aguleri should abuse the privilege of having the state governor from its community even as he sued for peace.


Umueri asks Obiano to intervene

Meanwhile, Umueri people appealed to Governor Willie Obiano to use his good office to end the communal crisis. Elders from Umueri, led by the Assistant Secretary, Umueri General Assembly, Mr Edwin Obigwe, addressed a press conference at Xandas Lounge, Awka. Obigwe, flanked by the National President, Umueri Youths, Ambassador Chibuzor Ekwenye, Mr Amechi Ajide, the Chairman of the embattled village as well as Comrade Chike Odili , immediate past Caretaker Committee Chairman, among others, said he spoke on behalf of Okonkwo, the President-General, Umueri General Assembly.

His words: “Our message is very simple: Umueri people want peace. We do not want to fight wars with any of our neigbours. “We appeal to the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, who hails from Aguleri, to use this opportunity of being at the helm of affairs in our state to put in place the machinery for achieving genuine peace between Aguleri and Umueri. ‘’This appeal to Gov. Willie Obiano is made even as we hear from some quarters that he is actually the person instigating his people of Aguleri to cash in upon this ‘golden opportunity’ provided by his stint to acquire as much of Umueri land as possible. We do not want to believe this story, but we are also worried that his people are spoiling for war.

‘’We call on the Anambra government to quickly implement the recommendations contained in the White Paper issued by government after the infamous 1995-2002 hostilities between our two communities. The said recommendations are quite sound and their implementation will, no doubt, bring total peace to our beleaguered area.

“Aguleri-Umueri land dispute dates back to the pre-independence era. The matter was heard at the Privy Council, United Kingdom during the colonial period. ‘’In 1984, the Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled that neither Aguleri nor Umueri could provide enough evidence to prove she had exclusive ownership of Otu-Ocha land which had been the main subject of litigation between our two communities.

“The court went further to direct that, in the circumstances, each community should hold on to that part of Otu-Ocha and adjoining areas where she had traditionally and originally held sway. ‘’Umueri community had thought that with that Supreme Court verdict, peace would prevail in our area between us and our neigbour. But this has not been the case.

“Apart from some relatively minor skirmishes, in 1995, Aguleri, claiming that an Umueri man had trespassed on a portion of their land along the Umueri-Onitsha Expressway, near Umueri Technical School, not only attacked, killed and maimed some workers on the controversial site, but also went beyond that to invade the entire Umueri community, killing innocent citizens, burning houses, private and public, and even churches.

‘’As if the 1995 was a child play, in 1999, there was the mother of all wars between Aguleri and Umueri. Needless to re-state here the quantum of losses (in persons, buildings, etc) which Umueri suffered from the 1999 hostilities. The decrepit houses, some of which were deliberately destroyed by dynamite, are still dotting Umueri landscape till today. For instance, St Gabriel’s Anglican Church, Umueri, the destruction of which was bemoaned by a bewildered visiting President Olusegun Obasanjo (as he then was), had to be re-built from the scratch. Up until now, our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, Umueri, destroyed during this infamous brouhaha, is still to be re-roofed; only the Rev Father’s residence has been rebuilt completely. Enough of our ugly past!”

On the latest confrontation, Obigwe informed: ‘’Less than a month ago, some Aguleri natives invaded Ovelle’s Road (Ezi Ovelle) area of Umueri, an area which boundary demarcation was done between our forefathers and Aguleri people. They destroyed several houses and fences in their characteristic manner and wounded Umueri people. Umueri swiftly reported that incident at Otu-Ocha Police Station, and also contacted the leadership of Aguleri with a view to expressing our amazement and receiving the necessary apology from Aguleri.

“Not only did that apology come, some sincere, God- fearing Aguleri people, under the aegis of Urnuiyi family and led by Bishop Anenechukwu Ifediorah, also told their fellow Aguleri people, in unequivocal terms, that the Ezi Ovelle axis is clearly Umueri land. ‘’That sincere declaration did not go down well with some Aguleri natives who threatened their lives and, when they escaped, they burnt their houses.

‘’Let me also state here that the recent annexation of Umueri is not restricted to Ezi Ovelle Road axis. Other flashpoints are the land near the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Office, Otu-Ocha; the road leading to Umueze Anam (near INEC) which is clearly an Umueri area and the Dabawu area where an Umueri shrine has been kept over the centuries. Recently, the premises of Dabawu was cleared by Umueri (Ugume Umueri village specifically), preparatory to receiving a visitor there, only for Okpu villagers of Aguleri to rush and plant crops there”.

In the 1995 – 2002 war, killings were the order of the day before then President Olusegun Obasanjo administration brought it to an end after inviting the leaders of the three communities of Aguleri, Umueri and Umuoba Anam to Abuja for a meeting.


Reaction

Though the state government has not officially reacted over the new Umueri/Aguleri crisis, the deputy governor, Dr Nkem Okeke, has called for peaceful coexistence in Anambra. Speaking at the meeting between Awba Ofemili in Awka North of Anambra and Ibite-Olo of Ezeagu, Enugu State, which took place at Enugu, Okeke called for peaceful coexistence between the people of the two states. He counselled against undue attachment to land.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44