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From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Lost in thought, Abraham Aondo kept soliloquizing while trying to board a commercial motorcycle from Makurdi town to his place of work in Abiem, a border community between Makurdi and Gwer East local government areas of Benue State.
The thoughts that preoccupied his mind included where to keep his aged parents, who had been displaced after their four-bedroom apartment was razed during the recent renewed crisis between Mbaivur/Mbasombo in Gwer East LGA of the state.
Aondo, a staff of Radio Nigeria (Harvest FM) and a native of Mbakume in Mbaivur Council Ward of Gwer East LGA, had been twice a victim of the lingering communal clashes in the area. In the latest crisis, Aondo’s septuagenarian father, Pa Stephen Iorchir Aondo-Nyamsar, and his 62-year-old mother, Mama Justina Hembanzan Iorchir, were made displaced people in their own land.
He recalled that, in June 2020, when the crisis first broke out, his new three-bedroom apartment in Ikpayongo was vandalized, which made him to vacate the house and relocate to Makurdi, where he lives in a rented apartment with his family till date.
And now, his parents’ house at Tse-Mede in Mbakume ward has been burnt down, with all their property, including foodstuff, electronics, clothes and farm inputs, among other things.
Aondo is just one of the over 5,000 victims of the lingering crisis between the two warring communities of Gwer East LGA, which, according to sources, started between Tse-Nor in Mbakume, Mbaivur, and Mbakough in Mbasombo but has lately spread to other villages within the two council wards.
It was gathered that the recent crisis occured penultimate Monday when a house belonging to a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police, the late Emmanuel Agber, a native of Mbasombo, was reportedly burnt down by unknown people, which angered his people, who, suspecting that the Mbaivur people may have perpetrated the act, went for revenge, identifying and burning houses belonging to Mbaivur people in the area.
Aondo said one of his relatives who was on his way to the Ikpayongo market early in the morning became the first casualty when he ran into the angry mob and was lynched.
He said: “On that fateful day, Thursday, February 24, the renewed crisis claimed the life of my elder brother, Mr. Ignatius Akombo, who was coming from Mbakume, his village, going to Ikpayongo Market.
“He ran into the scene of where the four bedroom apartment was freshly set ablaze at about 6am and the Mbasombo people believed it might have been carried out by some persons from Mbakume.
“He was killed on the spot, while his assailants proceeded into Mbakume village, which is more than 10 kilometres from the late police officer’s burnt house. They went about burning houses and farm produce as well as other properties.”
He said others who almost ran into the mob as Ignatius were the ones who retreated to alert the Mbakume people about what happened.
“If not for the prompt alert, which made people to run into hiding, there would have been many more casualties that day. That was why the number of deaths so far, in the recent crisis that I know, was two.”
Narrating what was the initial cause of the crisis, Aondo said, in May 2020, there was a land dispute in which the people of Mbakough in Mbasombo council ward were laying claim to a particular tract of land on which the people of Tse-Nor had been living for many years.
According to him, “The Mbasombo people said those from the other side were living on their father’s land and they should vacate it.
“The matter was taken to court but the people of Tse-Nor won the case. The judgment acknowledged that the Tse-Nor people have settled there for more than one hundred years.
“This did not go down well with their opponents, resulting in communal crisis of burning houses, destruction of farms, economic trees and killing of people.
“It was in this light that they left the crisis area about three kilometers away and destroyed my house in Ikpayongo on June 9, 2020. All the property inside was looted.
“They did the same thing to other people perceived to have come from Mbaivur but have bought land from them and built.
“In this recent crisis, my father’s house was burnt, together with five bags of rice, six bags of soya beans, five bags of groundnut, 100 plastic chairs, provision, which my mother used to sell worth over N200,000, beds, mattresses, cooking utensils, clothes and yam tubers, among others.”
Aondo listed those who have been affected by the recent renewed crisis as kindred head of Mbakaha, Chief Akaayaar Umande; Linus Akombo, Yonov Chihichan, Terzungwe Nyiakula, Sylvanus Aondo, Zaki Emmanuel Gundu, Valentine Ujinka, Benjamin Akume, Kuusu Akoodo, and Aondohemba lorchir, popularly known as Slikish, the Benue-born musician. The houses of all these people were burnt down.
It was observed that Tse-Nor, Chihichan, Tse-Agaku in Mbakume and Tse-Umande in Mbakaha kindreds all of Mbaivur council ward as well as Ayati, Mbamandev in Mbakough, and part of Tse-Iorvende in Nbasombo council ward all in Gwer East LGA were affected by the recent crisis.
Our correspondent gathered that the state government had in the past mediated in the matter with a view to ending the crisis between the two council wards but the efforts did not yield the desired result as both parties were said not to have agreed on the point of demarcation of the disputed land.
Meanwhile, the Benue State Police Command, in a statement on the crisis, described it as lawless behaviour by members of the two communities despite efforts of the state government, the police and other stakeholders to maintain peace in the area.
Commissioner of police in the state, Wale Abass, in the statement signed by the police spokesperson, Catherine Anene, condemned the violence and vowed to bring to book perpetrators of the dastardly acts.
The statement added that the command had already deployed police teams to the area to prevent further breakdown of law and order.
“It is no longer news that Mbasombo and Mbaivur communities in Gwer-East LGA of Benue State have a protracted disagreement over land and efforts have been made to restore peace in the area.
“In the past two years, a series of meetings has been held and peaceful resolution made to ensure the peace that they have been enjoying.
“The renewed crises began on 28/02/2022 when information was received that some mischievous persons burnt down the house of late DSP. Emmanuel Agber at Ikpayongo. A reaction from other members of the community led to destruction of other houses and two persons lost their lives.
“The CP also advised that, as people who speak the same language, alternative dispute resolution strategies would easily be adopted to resolve matters like this rather than engaging in violence that destroys life and property.”
He disclosed further that another round of dialogue had been scheduled with leaders of the two warring communities to see how to better handle the matter and bring the crisis to an end.
