• Schools, hospitals, court, houses, market in ruins
• We lost our parents, siblings, friends, homes – Victims
From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
Effium community, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State used to be a beehive of activities because of its economic values to the state and beyond. Its commercial activities attracted people from neighbouring states like Benue, Kogi, Enugu and Abia.
The attraction to the community was farm produce and livestock in commercial quantities, sold at relatively low prices.
Today, the community is a shadow of itself without any human activity. The popular Effium market in the community, lock-up shops, schools, hospitals and other facilities are no longer in existence.
As anticipated in any war situation, several lives have been lost and property worth billions of naira brought to ruins since the war started on January 22, 2021 between the people of Uffium and their Ezza-Effium kinsmen.
The communal war started when two political leaders in the area, Clement Odah and Chinedu Awo locked horns over the control of market and motor-park revenues in the community.
Odah, who is of Effium extraction, was a council chairman then while Awo, from Ezza, was a House of Assembly member.
The crisis escalated into a full blown communal war between the two clans that peacefully cohabited, inter-married and have shared many things in common for decades in the community.
As the community now remains deserted, with the inhabitants relocating to different parts of the state, the South-East and the country for safety and means of survival, several efforts have been made by the government, groups and even individuals to restore lasting peace in the troubled community to no avail.
On April 3, 2021, then Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo visited the community because of the magnitude of the killings and destruction. Although it was Easter Sunday, Osinbajo said there was no need to celebrate when the community was bleeding, hence his visit to the area.
He called on the warring parties to sheathe their swords and give peace a chance, pointing out that it was imperative they embraced peace to pave the way for assistance from the government and for the development of the area.
Osinbajo said leaders should endeavour at all times to ensure that those they are leading didn’t die needless deaths. At the time Osinbajo visited Effium, over 500 lives were already lost even though the war was just two months old.
Sadly, the war which is now in its fourth year, has claimed thousands of lives with property worth billions of naira destroyed.
“Many of my friends and acquaintances from both sides died either in the war front or in exile. I built my modest country home in the village and moved into it on December 29, 2020. On January 21, 2021 the war broke out and my compound, including my fathers’ and my grandfather’s compounds, as well as my uncle’s house and my entire village, were completely destroyed and consumed by that war.
“I had an average orchard and farm I had planted and never harvested one fruit from it. I lost everything. I lost relations and friends. The trauma was much,” Monday Eze, a resident of the area, told Saturday Sun.
Eze’s story is different from that of a 12-year-old girl, Chisom Nworie who lost her father, mother and four siblings in the crisis that engulfed the community.
Ever since the misfortune befell Chisom, she has been struggling for survival, begging for assistance to make ends meet at different locations in Abakaliki, the state capital. In an encounter with Saturday Sun, she broke down in tears, narrating how she lost her parents and entire siblings to the war.
“I am from Effium. My father, my mother and my siblings were killed in the crisis in our area. I have nobody to take care of me. I am the only survivor in my family. I have been begging since that year the crisis started.
“I can’t go back to my community because I don’t have anybody again as a father, mother, brother or sister and I don’t even know if there is still a house there,” she said.
Visibly disturbed by the crisis, the state governor, Francis Nwifuru, set up a committee headed by a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ambassador Franklin Ogbuewu. The committee issued a white paper for which the governor indicated his readiness to implement a lasting solution to the war.
At a church service at the Government House chapel, Centenary City, Abakaliki, the governor disclosed that implementation of the government’s white paper on the crisis would commence on Thursday last week.
He disclosed that he would sign a bill for the creation of autonomous communities in the Effium community on that day and also be in the area to flag off construction of the road that was created to demarcate the warring clans as part of efforts to end the crisis.
Nwifuru who revealed that the first autonomous community to be occupied by the people of Ezza in that area will be called Alioma and Ezekuna, threatened to deal decisively with anybody or group of persons who may attempt to truncate the peace building process.
He noted that he was not taking sides with any clan in the crisis but held that Ezza-Effium people have rights to live in the community where their forefathers also lived.
“We have agreed that Ezzas that are living in Effium have the right to live there because they can never be visitors in their fathers’ land. We also agreed that they are entitled to have their own community with their own traditional ruler like other clans,” he said.
The governor’s decision, however, did not go down well with some of the people of Effium, who said they couldn’t allow Ezza people to occupy their land. They vowed to resist the governor’s decision.
Dr. James Agina, President General, Effium Community Town Union, in a statement declared that “we are going to employ every legal means to resist it. We are going to stop him from executing the decision and his order. We are going to resist it with all our effort and might.
“It is never heard anywhere in any part of the world where the land that belongs to the indigenes will be forcefully taken from them and given to strangers that lived in that land.
“What he did today was evidently clear that he is using his power to collect what belongs to us and that we are going to resist with every sense of it.
“If he is going to mediate in this crisis, he must come with clean hands. He should be fair and just. But his decision is unfair, unjust and there is nothing like equity in his action. For that reason, we are going to resist it. We the Effium people will not allow it to stand.
“He should go back to the drawing board and reconsider his decision. We are equally calling on the elders of Izzi to call their son to order to reconsider his decision on this matter. It is uncalled for and it can never bring peace in Effium land. It will rather aggravate the crisis.
“This is not how to make peace. This is bringing more flames into the burning fire. We have also continued to reiterate that anything short of the implementation of the recommendation of the peace committee headed by the Emeritus Bishop Okoro is totally not acceptable to the people of Effium.
“We can never accept the report of the committee chaired by Franklyn Ogbuewu who is an in-law to the Ezza people, hence he is an interested party in the crisis in Effium. He is biased, unfair and unjust in his decisions,” the statement said.
But the reaction of Effium didn’t deter Nwifuru. The governor signed the law on the crisis in his office at centenary city on Thursday last week with all the security chiefs in the state in attendance and immediately proceeded to the troubled community to flag off construction of over 25 km road that will demarcate the people of Effium and Ezza-Effium in the community.
While signing the law, the governor said the creation of the communities was to ensure lasting peace in the area. He condemned the attitude of the Effium clan that opposed the autonomous communities and warned that his administration will not allow any group or persons to sabotage the efforts of the government to bring lasting peace in the area.
He alleged that some persons in the area have been profiting from the crisis which, according to him, was why they don’t want the crisis to end.
“I am particularly excited for a lot of reasons. Number one is that we have been able to champion the cause of peace with dignity and respect for humanity. The case of Effium and formerly known and called as Ezza-Effium before, is a very unfortunate incident.
“It is an incident caused by two individuals, people that were struggling for control of market and revenues in the motor park at Effium market and nobody knew that the case would turn out to be a very critical communal crisis the way it is now and it has consumed a lot of lives which no one ever wished for.
“It calls for concern when people pay the supreme price for peace in that particular community and in the dying minutes, people start raising issues that are unfounded.”
While flagging of the 25.5km road separating the communities, the governor said: “By the power conferred on me by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by the law made by the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Law No. 004 of 2025 captioned and to be cited and to be called Ebonyi State Effium and Alioma peace pact/creation of Effium, Ekerigwe, Ejem community in Effium, Alioma and Ezekuna Alioma autonomous community and land demarcation law 2025.
“So, by the power conferred on me and according to the law no 004 of 2025, five communities have been created from Effium community. They are Effium autonomous community, Ekerigwe autonomous community and Ejem autonomous community in Effium clan, and Alioma community and Ezekuna Alioma autonomous community in Ezza clan.
“Each of these communities represents each of the wards. So, all the wards belong to the communities. You have five wards in Effium and the whole five wards have communities of their own.
“Our job here today is to flag off the construction of the road demarcating Alioma and Effium. So, by the power conferred on me as the Governor of Ebonyi State, I hereby flag off the construction of this 25.5km road at the boundary between Alioma and Effium and also proclaim that Effium market and its environs, according to the law, are hereby acquired by the government of Ebonyi State for overriding public interest.
“This section shall be strictly adhered to and any violation shall be treated in accordance with the section 7 sub section 4 of this law. The area is known as forest with a total of 9, 784,140.1 square metres and that is 978.414 hectares hereby remains as a federal government reserved area for forest.
“On this note, ladies of gentlemen, this law prohibits selling of lands, buying of lands, cultivating in another community. These are my statements and these are my proclamations.
“I want to sound a serious warning to the disguised Hitlers and the killers, those who pretended to be good but they are evil. I am very much alert and I am very much alive and my eyes are seeing very clearly.”
A few days after the governor’s actions, the President of Effium Town Union, Dr. James Agina issued another statement. He said he had accepted the actions of the governor and urged the community to also do so in the interest of peace.
The statement reads: “It has come to my knowledge that some youths from my tribe have rejected the peace restoration in Effium community, thereby undermining the authority of the government of Ebonyi State.
“I hereby state that I have no prior knowledge of any protest or announcements of any kind either on the radio or television. This disclaimer serves as my resolve over the issue in my community.
“Recall that my late father, HRH Ezeogo Igwe Agina, was the traditional ruler of both Ezza and Uffiom people and there was never a question of the identity of the two brothers’ clan. Before my father ascended the Igweship position, an Ezza man was the first Igwe until his death.
“The governor of Ebonyi State has shown genuine commitment to the restoration of peace in Effium and I enjoin my kinsmen to accept what is on ground for us.
“We have always lived together and we should allow the division of the land to stand as it will help to forestall future crises.
“Those accusing my brother, Hon. Frank Onwe or any other person of sabotage should desist as we have always worked together for the return of peace in Effium community. We have fought gallantly and should allow wisdom to prevail.
“Thank God that we have three autonomous communities now and this is a lion’s share of whatever peace overture the governor brought to Effium.
“I hereby disassociate myself from every form of protest and I equally implore others to sheathe their sword. I equally warn that any possible confrontation with the Ebonyi State Government would spell doom on our people.”
A group, Effium Indigenes of Ezza Extraction in the state backed the decision of the governor to create autonomous communities in Effium to end the war in the community.
National President of the group, Chief Egbe Nwankwo, said the group pledged the support of Effium Indigenes of Ezza-Ezekuna Extraction for the Effium peace agenda of Ebonyi State Government, especially the creation of more autonomous communities for the two sections of Effium community.
The group also applauded geographical demarcation of polling units and electoral wards as required by law in the area.
The group further urged Governor Nwifuru to remain focused on the implementation of the Ebonyi State Government’s white paper on Effium peace; and to ensure the prosecution of some individuals of Effium extraction opposing his decisions in the troubled community to restore peace in the area.