No fewer than eight persons were said to have been killed in a clash between the people of Ogwor village in Ishiagu and Umobor village in Akaeze community, all in Ivo local government area of Ebonyi State.
The people of Umuobor, Akaeze and their neighbours, Ogwor in Ishiagu, have been in a lingering communal crisis over a land dispute for decades now, with several lives lost and properties worth millions destroyed by both warring communities.
It would be recalled that early last month, six persons were killed by the warlords who have continued to block the ever-busy Ishiagu/Okigwe express road, killing innocent people.
A resident of the area, one F.N. Igwe in a WhatsApp post, wrote, “Thank you your excellency,
“Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, our peace loving Governor, for your golden silence and great efforts towards ensuring lasting peace and justice prevails between the warring communities of UMOBOR & OGWOR in IVO LGA.
“Just yesterday, a total of 4 persons were killed in Umobor Akaeze. Extra 2 corpses recovered today and taken to the Army checkpoint in Akaeze.
“Your excellency’s silence and remote actions have continued to achieve more gains with more killings, maiming and abduction of innocent people of Akaeze and Ishiagu communities, and even non-Bbonyi people.
“We also wish to appreciate our stakeholders for their efforts in keeping the numbers on the increase. “It’s pertinent to appreciate all those who contribute handsomely towards the orchestration of more crisis, for their grave quest. Posterity shall be kind to everyone.”
In an interview with LEADERSHIP, a member of the Local Government Vigilante outfits, James Okoro, accused the two warring communities of hiring machinery to attack innocent people in their different farmlands, adding that the warlords now attack and kill people who do not have any business in the land dispute.
“About 3 weeks ago, the council chairman, Emmanuel Ajah, convened a meeting of all the stakeholders of the Ivo local government area, and part of the resolution was that there must be a permanent peace between the warring communities of Umobor village in Akaeze and Ogwor village in the community all in Ivo local government area.
“The stakeholders went back and informed their people that the two communities have resolved to give peace a chance. The next morning, the people believing that peace have returned, went to the farm only for them to be ambushed, attacked and killed by the warlords of the two communities.
“The suspected machinery employed by the two warring communities invaded a village called Amamaeze which has no business with the crisis and attacked the people there and killed innocent farmers.
“The machineries were said to have attacked the people of Umobor from the Ugwueke axis because the people of Ugwueke and Umubo have a common boundary. They invaded the farm and used machetes to cut the people’s farm. At the time they left, about 4 innocent people who did not have any link with the crisis had been killed.
“A man who was returning to his village after spending 3 months in the hospital having undergone an operation was attacked and killed. He was killed alongside the mother and the commercial motorcyclist that was conveying them back to the village.
“Unfortunately, some of the people who are being killed are not indigenes of the villages involved in the land dispute. On Monday when a search party was sent to the farm, two other dead bodies were recovered from the farm.
“People who are not even from the area are now scared of going to the farm including road users because what they do is to block the road and kill anyone they see along the axis.
“The Umubo people had accused Ugwueke people of allowing the Ogwor people to attack them through their village. The Ugwueke people, in response, revealed that the attackers came with sienna Vehicles, which they parked along the road and moved into the farmland where they attacked the innocent farmers.
“The people of Ugwueke also alleged that a top politician from Ishiagu had approached them to help them to fight the people of Umobor but they declined insisting that they and the people of Umobor does not have any crisis or dispute. From the look of things, the recent killing might be a sponsored attack,” he said.
Another community leader from the area who spoke on grounds of anonymity blamed the stakeholders of the local government for the continued killings and urged the state governor to intervene in the lingering crisis
When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) DSP Joshua Ukandu said that he was called concerning the killing but was informed that the corpses of those killed were taken to the Army Checkpoint.
“I am yet to get the details of the killings but once I am availed of the information, I will disclose it to the media immediately,” he said.
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