Parties in a land dispute in Abia State, which had left one person injured and cassava farms destroyed, have agreed to allow their traditional ruler, Eze Ebereocha Nwagbara, to mediate in the matter.
This followed a meeting between leaders of the feuding parties and the police on Monday at the Morning Market, near the Orji Uzor Bridge, Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State.
The dispute, which breached the peace in the Amaise Umuesigbe Autonomous Community, Obingwa local government area last Saturday, centred on a parcel of land along the Aba Ikot-Ekpene Road.
The crisis started when Prince Adindu Nwaezechukwu and three others from the Umulelu Umuaforukwu Village used earthmoving equipment to create a path on the land.
They were however confronted by the youths of the Umuagwa (Umuagara and Umuagwa kindreds) village over allegations of intimidation and trespass on the land, which they(youths) referred to as “Egbelu Umuagwa.”
Speaking to LEADERSHIP after the meeting, Nwaezechukwu noted their readiness to “listen to our traditional ruler ‘s counsel any time, any day.”
Similarly, the village chairman of Umuagwa, Uzorma Ugboraja, said they had accepted the resolution, “not minding our huge losses to allow peace to reign.”
According to the police station’s spokesperson, who asked not to be named, “We resorted to the resolution because the traditional ruler will be better positioned to handle the matter.”
The spokesperson, who lauded the parties’ cooperation during the meeting, explained that they were at liberty to pursue the matter in court if they were unsatisfied with the resolution.
”Ours is to maintain peace and order, and we achieved that to ensure the security of life and property in the community. We don’t settle land disputes,” said the officer.
Narrating his experience during the dispute earlier, the oldest man in Umuagwa, Emmanuel Otuka Akomas, aged 91, described it as unfortunate, affirming Umuagwa’s ownership of the land.
According to the Biafran Army veteran, “Since my childhood, the land has been known as Egbelu Umuagwa, which speaks to its ownership from time immemorial.”
The nonagenarian wondered, “how someone from a village that doesn’t even share a common boundary with us suddenly began to lay claim to it.”
When asked whether the traditional ruler had ever made efforts to settle the matter in the past, he responded that the attempt was inconclusive.
Contributing, one of the leaders of the community, Iheariorochi Adindu, explained that before the Saturday incident, “some leaders of Umuaforukwu had in the past testified that the land belongs to us”.
Adindu maintained that “as far as the history of Umuagwa and the land is concerned, none of the other party’s forefathers, grandfathers, or fathers ever laid claim to Egbelu Umuagwa”.
In her remark, Agness Ikpendu, who said she was harvesting cassava on her farm when the dispute erupted, noted, “I ran away when I heard someone had been seriously injured”.
The widow called for “urgent settlement of the matter before it leads to bloodshed”.
One of the youth leaders, Chidi Adindu, remarked, “How the traditional ruler had, during a live radio programme in one of the FM stations in Aba, pronounced the land as belonging to us.”
Meanwhile, when LEADERSHIP visited the monarch’s palace last Saturday after the dispute was over, it was gathered that he was not around, and efforts to reach him through the phone failed.
