(Geoffrey Anyanwu, AWKA)

The embattled oils bearing people of Aguleri Otu community in Anambra East local government area of Anambra State have said the community needed peace more than relief materials the Federal government through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), is giving to them.

They have therefore, pleaded with the federal, Anambra and Kogi state governments to do everything possible to ensure quick resolution of the dispute between community and the people of Ibaji in Kogi State.

Aguleri Otu people who spoke when they received relief materials donated by NEMA, to their people displaced during the attack by their Ibaji neighbours, said they were still being harassed by the people of Ibaji.

Nothing that the harassment and attack were almost on daily basis in an effort to claim Anambra land rich in oil deposits, the people added that many lives have been lost even as many of the natives had to flee from their homes.

The IDPs were victims of the June 2015 bloody clash between the border communities over claims for the ownership of farm lands in the area.

President General of Enugu-Otu, Mr. Benjamin Onyenwife and his Nkpunando and Eziagulu-Otu counterparts, Messrs Edwin Chukwuemeka and Hyacinth Chika respectively who expressed gratitude to the federal government for the donations, alleged that communities in Ibaji have been invading their farmlands and called for the posting of people they described as impartial federal security operatives to the disputed territories to maintain law and order.

According to them, “In as much as we accept the relief materials, we want quick resolution of the dispute between our people and Ibaji. We also want the security operatives there to be changed because those presently there are biased.”

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Chief Paul Odenigbo had while distributing the relief materials to the Internally Displaced People (IDPs), on behalf of NEMA said the state government would not relent in its efforts to ameliorate their plight.

Items distributed included bags of cement, garri, sugar, salt, tomatoes, mats, mattresses and plastic buckets.