Whatever sparked off the latest clashes between the people of Umuode and their Oruku neighbors of Enugu state smacks of senselessness and utter disrespect for constituted authorities.This is because the present government of Sullivan Chime is, for the first time in several years, trying to resolve this lingering bloody class and land war that had claimed several lives of people of the two communities. It is on record that the war had, over the past seventeen years it lasted, claimed well over a thousand lives and buildings belonging to the people. Other previous governments merely played politics with the strife.(Picture top left shows the razed house of Justice Anthony Onovo of Umuode, and top right is a wounded Oruku victim)
It would be recalled that in the course of the war, the Umuodes had, on two occasions, been driven out of their homes into exile. The first was in 1995 and the second lasted eight years (from 1999 to 2007).
Governor Chime thus set up a committee to inquire into the crisis, with a view to coming up with lasting solutions. Before this, he promptly returned the exiled Umuodes to where they know as their land. Chime, also, took time out to visit the warring brothers, promising that his government would leave no stone unturned in bringing to an end the communal clashes that have lingered for so many years. The visiting governor urged the people to be willing to make sacrifices for peace to return to their land. He promised to beef up security in the area, and rehabilitate all the link roads, and resettle the people.
The white paper which followed from recommendations by the committee, among other things, recommended that the disputed vast area of land called Aguefi should be conceded to the people of Umuode while they (the Umuodes) should vacate those areas they are occupying in Oruku for the Oruku people. Chime’s government went further to earmark the sum of N262 million for compensation to Oruku people for their structures at the newly acquired Aguefi land while N151 million was earmarked for Umuode people for their property destroyed in Oruku.
It was as Chime government was about implementing this white paper that fresh hostilities broke out between the twin communities. Amongst victims of the latest mayhem include Professor Bath Nnaji, a world renowned Robotic Engineer and former minister of science and technology in Nigeria. Nnaji’s storey building was razed. Also razed were the houses of Anthony Onovo, and Emmanuel Omaba, Enugu high court judge and one time deputy chairman of Nkanu East council.
In this particular mayhem, the Oruku people are said to be the aggressors, as they consider the white paper unfavorable to them. The Orukus thus, on January 30, invaded the Umuodes, visiting them with mayhem and violence. KlinReports gathered that, for the timely arrival of the police, the whole Umuode community would have been razed down.
Already police says it has arraigned five persons before an Enugu magistrate court in connection with the violence. The accused persons are standing trial on an eight count charge of promoting local war, felony and arson against the people of Umuode.
The comment to make here is that it is highly unfortunate that the good intentions of Governor Chime in seeing to the end of the age-long Oruku, Umuode war are being sabotaged by the renewed hostilities which witnessed the destruction of people’s houses and property in the area. If there were issues against the contents of the white paper, the best option would not have been the invasion of Umuode community by Oruku. No, that is barbarism!
The Oruku and Umuode communities should know that they remain brothers, and that this is the only opportunity they may have to resolve the lingering baseless war that had cost them everything. Governor Chime has shown enough sincerity towards restoring peace in the area, and all hands must be on deck to realize this.
No matter who gets favored more than the other by the white paper, the people should, in the interest of peace, make sacrifices and take government’s verdict over the matter. There is certainly no alternative to peace.
Is it not shameful that rather than grappling with the challenges of collectively developing their God-given land, members of these two communities are busy killing themselves, taking lives they cannot recreate, and destroying buildings which had taken hard earned money to build.
What a shame! A shame indeed!
