From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
Inter-communal war brews in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State over protracted land dispute between two neighbouring communities: Umuobor, Akaeze and Ogwor, Ishiagu in the area.
The two neighbours have for over five decades laid claim to a fertile land with some lives lost and valuable property destroyed.
The land tussle shifted to the courts and got to the nation’s apex court. The Supreme Court ruled that the land known as Elueke land belongs to Umuobor Akaeze community.
The supreme court judgement ought to have laid the land dispute to rest but it rather escalated with frequent abductions, shootings, torturing and harassment occurring on the land.
Chairman of the local government area, Chief Emmanuel Ajah, had to set up a panel to look into the matter with a view to permanently resolving it.
While the panel was yet to submit its report, an armed group allegedly invaded the farm land, shot some persons and abducted others.
Among those shot is Sunday Ngwoke from Umuobor, Akaeze. He narrowly escaped death though bullets riddled his body. Ngwoke is lying critically at the accident and emergency unit of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA). He was shot severally on the lap very close to his reproductive organ.
Ngwoke showed our correspondent eight bullets that were extracted from one of his legs while more would be removed after surgery which he was about to undergo when Daily Sun visited. He noted that he was in his farm when a group of armed men surrounded and attacked him.
“When they started beating me with butt of guns, rods and other weapons, I had to look around carefully and immediately started running. They pursued me and fired shots at me. They shot me on the lap but I continued running because I didn’t want them to kill me. They continued shooting me. I ran inside a very big bush and hid myself there. They started combing the bush.
“They were using my blood drops as I ran to trace me. When I noticed that they were tracing me with my blood drops, I ran inside water. They searched for me and left. I crawled and got to the road where people saw me and helped me to get to my place.
“This transparent plastic bottle you are seeing in this hospital contains eight bullets that were removed from this my lap. Doctors told me that more will be removed after surgery,” Ngwoke stated.
Another victim, Unegwu Ajali, said that they were working on their farm when an armed group attacked them shooting one person in the process. He stated that their attackers also abducted some of them, including him and his brother.
He narrated: “They would have killed us if not God who protected us. They surrounded us and started attacking us, they hit me gun butt on the chest. When I started running, they shot me on the leg and hand and abducted me. They blindfolded me and my brother and took us inside a forest. They tormented us severely and carried us out of the forest and dumped us somewhere and removed what they used to blindfold us thinking that we were dead.
“They threatened to kill anyone who stepped his feet on the land. They have taken us severally to court over the land and court have always affirmed that we are the owners of the land through their judgements.
“On August 1, I went to the farm again with my child to harvest crops when I was attacked. I was macheted on the leg. They said that their brother who was a local government chairman area sent them to ensure that we don’t trespass on the land.”
Another indigene of Akaeze, Joshua Chukwu equally escaped death on the land. He said that he was in the farm when armed men stormed the place and ordered him to drop the cutlass he was working with and follow them, which he obeyed. He followed them to a forest where some persons were being tortured.
He disclosed that his abductors tortured him thoroughly and that they told him they did not care about any Supreme Court judgement on the land and the panel set up by the local government chairman on the matter.
“I was working in my farm on 25th July when I was attacked by armed men. The armed men covered their faces and they were with guns and other dangerous weapons.
“When I followed them to the forest as they ordered me, they were torturing our people, hitting them with guns, cutlasses and rods and they immediately started hitting me too.
“I asked them why they are torturing us and they asked me if I know them and I said no. They told me that the land they met me belongs to them, that they were the people of Ogwor, Ishiagu. They broke my hands and legs and ordered me to sit down. They told me that we have been cultivating on the land and that it is their own. They said they don’t care about any court judgement and the decision of the local government chairman on the land.
“They said that it is only their brother, a former local government area chairman from Ishiagu and former commissioner that they will obey on the land and that they have arrange boys that will ensure that we don’t enter the land anymore till they completely take over the place.”
The community’s lawyer, Ibekwe Odiegwu lamented incessant attack on Umobor people on the land and called on the state government to intervene before the dispute metamorphosed into inter-communal war.
He said every farming season, the people of Ogwor make trouble with Umuobor people on the land and that it may get to a level that his clients will not tolerate it again.
“Since 1971, there has been dispute over a piece of land known as Elu Eke land. The people of Ogwor took the people of Umobor to High Court under old Imo State. The court after looking at the whole thing, ruled in favour of Umobor people, that they are the owners of the land in contest.
“The people of Ogwor Ishiagu, not comfortable with the judgement, took the matter to Court of Appeal, Enugu and the Court of Appeal also ruled in favour of Umobor people. Ogwor people equally proceeded to the Supreme Court when it was in Lagos and the highest court after all analysis and investigations, also ruled in favour of Umobor people to the effect that the land in contest belongs to the people of Umobor of Akaeze and not the people of Ogwo of Ishiagu.
“Usually during farming season, the people of Ogwor always write a petition against the people of Umobor and drop it in Ivo Police Division and also in the police headquarters. They will now enter the land the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Umobor people and start doing one thing or the other in the farm and when the Umobor people react, they will start attacking them, they start beating them, destroying their crops, molesting them and after this, they will still go to police and the police will use their authority and invite Umobor people and when they come, they will be held to have committed offence against Ogwor people.
“From there, it will take them a lot of time and resources before they will wriggle out of it and police will force them to bail themselves with huge amount of money. This last one, three persons paid N350,000 as bail even in the presence of the coordinator of Akaeze Development Centre that led them to that place. This one happened last month. This is what they continued to do as recurring decimal so that it will be as if that Umobor people are championing communal war.
“While we were in the police, the Ogwo boys were in the land chasing women away from the land, beating and flogging them with machetes. They are now shooting people and it is threatening the security of an integral part of the state. They are harassing people, injuring people and preventing people from going to their farms.
“The local government area chairman invited the two communities and constituted a panel to look into this matter and gave the panel 13 days to report to him. He warned all the parties to steer clear of any trouble and ordered that those that own their farms there should access the farms while the government will look into the matter and the parties all agreed.”
But unfortunately, the lawyer lamented that few days ago, Sunday Ngwoke of Umobo community was shot severally in his farm, noting that he escaped death by God’s intervention.
“It’s not as if that Umobor people can’t do anything to protect themselves. As a community leader, I have been calming them let government settle the matter but there will be an extent that the thing will go out of hand. Let government look into this matter as a matter of urgency,” he warned.
Daily Sun contacted the Chairman of Ogwor community, Emmanuel Ajah, who said that the disputed land (Elueke) belongs to his people. According to him, it was given to a man from Umuobor by Ogwor forefathers in the olden days for farming to enable him feed himself when he was banished for seven years for committing a crime against the Umuobor community.
He noted that when the man returned to Umuobor after the seven years in exile, he came with many foods items he harvested from the land that was given to him by Ogwor forefathers The Umuobor people were happy and urged him to take them to the land and he did so.
According to Ajah, the Umuobor people refused to be doing what kept their kinsman on the Elueke land by performing traditional rites as license to be farming on the land which angered that man that brought them to the land. His people then incited his son who killed him when he had issues with his wife.
“We have no boundary with Umuobor Akaeze. If you come to our left side from where you get their place, yoåu get Okue Autonomous Community also in Ishiagu, we have boundary with Okue there. If you come to our right-hand side, we have boundary with Amagu where former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, hails from and it’s also in Ishiagu. Then in our front, we have boundary with the people of Ugwueke, Abia State.
“This Elueke land that they are contesting with us is the good deeds of our forefathers and it is what is causing this problem. Our forefathers accepted a man from Umuobor who killed a sheep in their community and it was a taboo to kill a sheep in Umuobor in those days. So, our forefathers accepted that man because he was banished from the community for seven years and he ran to them for settlement in Ogwor and begged for a land in Elueke where most of the these Umuobor people are currently living.
“So, our forefathers accepted the man to live there and be farming for them and be feeding himself. Every year, he renewed his stay on the land by performing traditional rites. After the seven years of banishment, he returned to the community with much foods from the Elueke land and his people asked him where he cultivated the food and he told them it was in Ogwor, Ishiagu from a land that was given to him by the people. They then told him that they will follow him to the land for cultivation because that land is very fertile and they followed him and started farming on the land.
“They continued farming on the land. The man told them that they should be renewing their activities on the land the way he was doing by performing traditional rites and they refused. The man told them that it was not good, that if he was not renewing his stay on the land, he would have died of hunger when he was banished from Umuobor. They got angry and incited the man’s son when the man had issues with his wife and the son stabbed him to death with knife. Immediately the man died, they started laying claim to the land and began to attack and kill our people,” he narrated.
Ajah alleged that Umuobor people have killed nine of their members and destroyed their crops.
“In 1989, they killed seven persons from our place. In 2005, they killed another person, one Sunday, and his body was not seen till today. In 2015, they killed another person from our side making it nine persons they have killed. As they were killing us, government continued to make peace and we were accepting the peace because we know that the land belongs to our forefathers even though they made mistakes by allowing them to stay on the land.
“Umuobor people intensified efforts to take over the land as they were killing us. They took us to court and you know that at times court’s judgement can be faulty and court ruled in their favour because they were always appearing in the court each time the matter came up.
“After the court judgement, they left that Elueke land and encroached on our land known as Ovia Ogwor and they continued tormenting us. There is a level you will be pushing a person and the person will react especially when you pushed him to the wall.
“In May this year, they came and stole all cassava in our farms and harvested our Okro (80 baskets worth N30,000 each). I reported the matter to the police as the village chairman.
“In June last month, they kidnapped five of our people, including one Aja Ude. If not the way our Development Centre Coordinator was calling them on phone and begging them, those five persons would have been dead by now.”
Spokesman of the state police command, Joshua Ukandu, told Daily Sun that the Ivo Division was yet to furnish the headquarters with details about the case.