By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
Providence smiled on 14 journalists on Saturday as they escaped death by whiskers following a bloody clash between armed policemen and protesting people of the Ezinano Community in Awka South local government area of Anambra State.
At the center of the crisis was a disputed land belonging to Ezinano Community in Awka South LGA which people of Enugu Agidi Community in Njikoka LGA are laying claim to as her own.
Trouble started in the morning of Saturday when hundreds of elders, leaders, women and youths of the Ezinano Community in Awka South local government area stormed the disputed land but armed policemen stationed within the land started shooting guns and teargas in an ensuing pandemonium.
Four persons including two policemen and two civilians sustained injuries during the clash.
The journalists drawn from various media houses were caught in the crossfire between the policemen and the aggrieved people of the Ezinano Community even as some of them (journalists) escaped death by whiskers but Providence smiled at them.
Among the journalists at the scene of the crisis were Correspondents of The Sun Newspapers, ThisNigeria, New Telegraph, ThisDay, The Nation, The Razor, Vanguard Newspaper, Pilot Newspaper, two staff of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Fidel Newspaper, Tribune, National Star and Leadership Newspaper, in Awka
About four out of 14 policemen stationed around the disputed land were held hostage while others took to their heels during the melee
However, those held bound by aggrieved protesters were later released to allow peace to return to the troubled area.
One of the policemen deployed to the land who refused to mention his name told newsmen that they were at the disputed land on the order of the Commissioner of Police, adding that they were not dragging land with members of the Ezinano Community nor those of Enugu Agidi Community.
This is as CP Adeoye in quick reaction exonerated himself from anything linking him with the said deployment of the 14 armed policemen.
He said, “I don’t know them; I did not send or deploy any policeman to the said land. I didn’t know they were going there and I didn’t send anybody and whatever happens there concerns them. I have no hand in the matter and I didn’t out any policeman there.”
The protesting elders, leaders and others from the protesting community accused the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adoye of alleged connivance with the people of Enugu Agidi Community by deploying policemen to the disputed land to protect them.
They disclosed that various court judgments decided since 2005 when the dispute began, 2019 and to date, had favoured the people of Ezinano Community in South LGA of the state.
According to elders, leaders and women of the Ezinano Community, the Enugu Agidi people had reneged on oral alimony between them and the Ezinano Community to vacate the land but instead, they started building houses and other construction structures on the land and also resisted attempts by host Ezinano community to enter their ancestral land.
They urged the police to restrain themselves from the disputed land to allow peace to reign.
Also, they stated that they have lost millions of naira worth of farm produce which the Enugu Agidi people had destroyed and even prevented them from harvesting since this year’s harvest season as well as prevented them from entering their completed and ongoing building projects.
Chief Richard Onuorah said “We have come here to continue with our building here. We brought these women alongside the men and others because they have been farming and built their houses here. So, we came today so that we continue with our buildings and those who are farming will continue.”
“We want to know why the police are here and who brought them; why should they be here? We want to know who brought them and why are they here. As soon as they saw us, they started shooting and even teargassed us.”
Also, Chief Arinze Ekenem from UmuOkpu in Awka South LGA said the land in dispute is located within “AguNawgu where we have FourWays, Mango and Lion and so many divisions of the land. The entire land is called Agu Nawgu. We were in dispute but the matter is over now. We sued them (Enugu Agidi) in court in the year 2005 and there is a matter about what stopped them from paying alimony to us which they are supposed to be paying and they agreed to pay. We took them to court and they said they would be paying.”
*The state government is aware of the problem because there is no problem they won’t be aware of. The problem here is that we saw a lot of policemen here and we tried to enquire about what was wrong but they denied it. We are here to know who brought them. We are not here to fight. Did you see anybody with a weapon? We have no weapons. And these people are using AK 47,” he stated.
On his part, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ezinano community Chief Kanayochukwu Obidigbo noted that the people of Enugu Agidi are tenants in the land and have been paying tenancy fees to his Community for cultivating the land.
He said that the community had reported to the State Police Commissioner Aderemi Adeoye that he sent officers and men of the Command to take over the community land which the Commissioner denied.
“We had made a petition to the Commissioner of Police over the deployment of officers and men to take over the land but he denied the allegations”
“But today you all saw what happened here that policemen are occupying our land and this is the handwork of a Deputy Police Commissioner who has been using them to deny us access to the land and you saw the shooting of guns and tear gas on our people by the orders of the Deputy Commissioner of Police”
“What interest has the Deputy Commissioner of Police in our communal land? Who is he working for we use this medium to urge the Inspector General of Police to investigate this man because that Police Commissioner himself has washed his hands off the deployment of officers and men of the Command” he said
“Our Great grandfathers’s got this land called Agu Nawgu which is about 6km reduce from the Mega station down there and I grew up and saw this land ”
“It has a survey plan of 1949 / 1959 by our Great grandfathers with title and when Enugu Agidi people came to the farm on the land we had an agreement of them pay tenancy fee which they were paying and stopped at some point ”
The Enugu Agidi people suddenly started laying claim to the land and we won the case at the then Privy Council which was the Supreme Court as it where part of the land was taken by the then Peter Obi administration and some later returned to us by the Ezinano community” he added.
