By PETER OKUTU, Abakaliki
UBURU in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State is said to be prone to violence, especially during electioneering campaigns to elect those to pilot the affairs of the local government area or the state as a whole.
However, the incident of last Saturday was not as a result of the clash of political interest involving members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as was the case in the past, but because of an unresolved land dispute which had lasted only a year.
On the fateful day, a clash between two villages in Uburu, Umunaga Enuagu and Urobo led to the destruction of property worth millions of naira, including motor vehicles, farm produce, among others. Some members of Umunaga village also sustained various degrees of injuries.
Recounting his ordeal, Mr. Ogbodiya Uzor, 86, lamented the way and manner his property and those of his fellow villagers were destroyed by irate youths from Urobo village and called on the state government to assist the people of the area recoup their losses.
Other victims, including Mr. Cyprain Eze, Emmanuel Umahi, Umahi Abba, Joseph Umahi Abba, Ishiah Uzor, Chinelo Agwu, Martin Eze, Benard Eze, Mrs Bridget Uzor and Prince Matthew Nwigwe called on security agents to arrest all those behind the dastardly act.
(http://vml1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ebonyi-village.jpg?9d7bd4) (http://www.vanguardngr.com/?attachment_id=299950)**One of the houses razed during the attack. INSET: Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Dave Umahi Members of Omunagu village who spoke with Vanguard Metro, VM believed that the masterminds of the attack wanted to create a situation to discredit the Deputy Governor, Dave Umahi, as being unable to maintain peace in his area. They added that what saved the situation from escalating was the decision of the people not to carry out a reprisal attack against Urobo people who were allegedly behind the mayhem.
VM gathered that the attack on Umunaga Enuegu, Mr Umahi's village, was intended to spark off an inter-village war which would have led to loss of lives as well as undermine the ambition of the Deputy Governor to run for the Governorship of the state probably in 2015. This possibly explains why Mr Umahi had immediately called for an emergency meeting of the two villages in order to ensure that peace was restored in Uburu community.
At the meeting, he stressed the role of peace in both human and physical development, adding that the state government was not ready to tolerate any form of violence as such development would impede infrastructural development that would come to them through the policies of government.
Umahi, who spoke in his dialect, charged both villages to learn to live as one and not to allow themselves to be used as instruments of destruction even as he advised the people to make it a point of duty to always convey their grievances through proper channels in the community and not to take laws into their hands.
Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner for Police, CP Maman Sule affirmed that no one was killed as a result of the incident, adding that one person was injured, while a car and motorcycles were burnt just as some houses were razed down.
According to CP Sule, men and officers of the command had been deployed to the troubled zone to ensure that peace and stability was restored, adding that 18 persons suspected to have masterminded the mayhem had been charged to court. He informed that the suspects were apprehended during the outbreak of violence in the area.
Condemning the attack,Sule wondered why youths in the state would allow themselves to be used as instruments of destruction, instead of engaging in worthy ventures that would engender peace and development of the community.
While giving a background on the immediate and remote causes of the ugly episode, the Chief Security Officer of the area and Coordinator of Ohaozara West Development Centre, Mr. Roy Umahi stated that a 36-man Peace and Reconciliatory Committee had been set up with a view to finding lasting solution to the land dispute even as he warned politicians in the area to desist from using youths to cause mayhem at the slightest provocation.
According to him: "Sometime last year, the people of Urobo village came to me and said the people of Umunaga Enuagu were excavating sharp sand from the river and that the river belongs to them. So, I pleaded with them to keep the peace and then I also pleaded with Umunaga Enuagu to keep the peace even as they said that the river and the land along that area belong to them.
"So, I told them that both sides should be fetching or excavating sharp sand from the river and I made them to understand that under the law everything in the river belongs to the government and that we ought to be giving them the licence to carry out the excavation but that there should be peace and they agreed. But the Urobo people later said no, that Umunaga people should not excavate sharp sand from there.
"Consequently, Uburu as a whole called them and said no side should go to the river again or the lands around that area which are in dispute. Notwithstanding this fact, the Urobo people went there and were excavating sharp sand".
VM gathered that this action on the disputed land which cuts across both villages culminated in the attack which was said to have been carried out by Urobo people.
However, when VM visited Uburu community, calmness and normalcy had returned to the area as armed men police men were seen patrolling the two villages in order to keep the peace.
Vanguard Nigeria