Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Drums of war are sounding in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State, where the age-long frictions over some pieces of land, which had occasionally led to bloody wars between Aguleri and Umueri communities appear to be gradually returning to the communities. The people are currently enjoying relative peace.
Daily Sun investigations showed that if decisive action was not taken as quickly as possible to nip it in the bud, there might be total breakdown of law and order in the area with the attendant loss of lives and properties destroyed. Recently, the people of Umueri staged a peaceful protest at the construction site of the Police Institute of Finance and Administration (PIFA), claiming ownership of the land.
The protesters numbering more than 2,000 though did not kick against the project, but claimed that the state government did not consult them before handing out the land to the police authorities for the project. They equally claimed that they rejected the compensation paid on it because government joined them with their neighbour (Aguleri). They insisted that the land exclusively belongs to them.
Leader of the protesters, Chief Mike Anaegboka, told Daily Sun that apart from the ownership issue, they were also protesting the encroachment beyond what was given to the police into their residential area and demolition of some of their houses allegedly by the Nigeria Police.
He said the parcel of land where PIFA project was sited measured 17 hectares. He alleged that instead of operating within the boundaries of the 17 hectares, the police authority later returned to the site and laid claim to additional 117,983 hectares making it 118,000 hectares, almost the entire community.
Irked by this alleged development, the protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Agu-Akor land is Umueri heritage,” “Police, stop ongoing marking and destruction of our properties” and “Police don’t cause Umueri and Aguleri war” to register their anger.
They accused Governor Willie Obiano, who hails from Aguleri, of siding with his people and using his position to humiliate them. Anaegboka alleged that already, more than 500 houses belonging to the villagers and other people who bought land and developed same in the contentious area have been marked for demolition even as some have already been pulled down: “What our people are saying is that they are annoyed over what is happening; that the Government of Anambra State never consulted them before they took their land and started building.
“But we are not saying that they should not build. We are saying that they should continue but they must follow the due process. That due process is we and them talking it over.
“We have given them 17 hectares which is enough to build what they want to build. If they say it is not enough, we have a place to give to them but the houses our children have built and those we sold to other people here must not be demolished.
“They have marked most of our houses for demolition and they have started demolishing. They are doing what they are not supposed to do because we don’t have a governor.
“The governor from our neighbouring town is humiliating us. He is doing so many things he is not supposed to do. So, what we are saying is that the Inspector General of Police should do what he is doing with our consent.
“We will allow him to do it in this portion of land I have said; 17 hectares. We are not saying that they should leave but the protocol should be followed. We talk with them and agree. There should be a paper saying that we gave out the land.
“They paid compensation but we refused because they paid compensation between us and our neighbour who don’t own land here. So, we said that we are not going to take, if the government wants anything, they should come directly to us.”
Reacting to the development, Aguleri people dismissed the claim of ownership by Umueri as absolute falsehood. They said their protest was ill-conceived as the contentious land does not belong to Umueri. president-general of Aguleri community, Chief Hipo Onwuegbuke, and the co-chairman of Aguleri/Umueri Peace Committee, Chief Ralph Igwah, indicated that the contentious land belonged to government which none of the feuding communities should claim ownership of:
“The protest was hinged on the false claim by the Umuleri community that the land belongs to them. The people of Aguleri hereby debunk strongly the Umuleri claim as false as it is not in accord with the 2006 Peace Agreement between the two communities.
“The agreement states ‘that from the point government land begins (that is, from the Agricultural Department, Otuocha) to the point it ends, (that is, at the INEC office, Otuocha) as well as the land given to the police at Otuocha shall be regarded as Public Institute/Property and neither Aguleri nor Umuleri shall lay exclusive claim to these areas.
“The tendency or attitude of the Umueri community to disregard peace agreements reached and signed with Aguleri is one major cause of tension in the area.
“This is exemplified in their attitude towards agreement reached by the Aguleri/Umueri Peace Committee and by the land owning families of both communities. The two communities should abide by the existing agreements existing between them, and Umueri community should stop further provocative acts against Aguleri.”
President of Aguleri Youths, Mr Nnamdi Ikeli, said the youths do not want war but a peaceful resolution of all the matters concerning the land tussle: “The stand of the youths is that we are not going to war. It is our wish that Umueri people should embrace peace just as we want peace. We want progress and development in our community and not war.”
Efforts to get the reaction of Governor Obiano’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Ikenna Aniagboso, were not successful as he neither picked several calls to his phone nor returned them. He also failed to reply to a text message sent to him by our correspondent as at the time of filing the report.