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From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
No fewer than four indigenes of Akpoha in Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, were last weekend, confirmed to have been abducted even as Amasiri people in the same LGA raised the alarm over destruction of their farm lands.
The two communities have been engaged in age-long fratricidal war over parcel of land, leading to killings and destruction of property worth several millions of Naira.
Police Public Relations Officer, Joshua Ukandu, a Superintendent of Police who quoted the Afikpo Division of Police said the four persons were abducted Friday last week.
He also said that their personnel have visited the scene of the incident. Though the Police Division has commenced a search for the abducted persons but they were yet to establish those behind the abduction.
With a search party already deployed, Police disclosed that they were collaborating with the community leaders and traditional rulers to unravel the reason behind the latest abduction.
An unconfirmed community source gave the names of the captives as Ugbo Oko, Otu Enya, Ebi Okoro and Comfort Igwe, a female.
Akpoha people alleged that the people were abducted by Amasiri youths following the lingering communal crisis between the two communities.
The source stated that they have been facing serious intimidation and harassment in the hands of Amasiri people, adding that a good number of their men and women has been abducted by the Amasiri youths and till date, they never returned.
Daily Sun learnt that hostilities were reignited in the area on July 22, 2025, when Akpoha mercenaries allegedly shot five Amasiri people and destroyed a farm owned by one Chigbuogu Aluu.
It was further gathered that the same Akpoha people launched attacks on July 24, 2025 on some women who went to farm.
An indigene of Amasiri community who also spoke on grounds of anonymity debunked the allegation that the missing persons were abducted by youths from his community, insisting that the people of Akpoha were the aggressors: “We are peace loving people. The land in question belongs to Amasiri people and the people of Akpoha are just trying to provoke our people to go into war with them but we have been restricting ourselves and calming our youths down. Just early last week, they attacked and killed our people but we kept calm because the State Governor is already intervening in the crisis.”
Leaders of thoughts in the two warring communities of Amata Akpoha and Ezeke Amasiri, last month, unanimously pledged to end any form of hostility in the lingering land dispute between them.
