The Agony of Aguleri/Umuleri War

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Category: News
Date of Article: 05/11/99
Topic: The Agony of Aguleri/Umuleri War
Author: Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha
Full Text of Article:

BEFORE the madness of fratricidal war seized them six weeks ago, Aguleri and
Umuleri were peaceful, sleepy and largely
agrarian communities - like most Igbo rural communities.
Now, the two communities in Anambra State have been laid desolate by a senseless
war, over land, in which sophisticated,
lethal weapons (including dynamites and sundry explosives) are freely used.
Indeed, one of the most haunting images of the Aguleri-Umuleri strife is the
ominous sight of vultures which regularly swoop on
the war-torn communities to feed on the corpses of hapless men and women
slaughtered by their kinsmen in a reckless war of
attrition.

Altogether, more than 500 persons on both sides of the conflict have lost their
lives so far in the Aguleri/Umuleri war. Even the
law enforcement agents, who have tried feebly to restore a semblance of peace in
the last couple of weeks, have recorded their
own share of victims in the communal war.
Four policemen have been killed, while four others are still missing.
Indications are that the four policemen are being held
hostage by some of the tribal warriors. However, there are also genuine fears
that the law enforcement agents may have been
sacrificed as well on the gory altar of communal avarice for LAND.It is all very
pathetic.
To be precise, it was on April 3, 1999, at midnight, that what is today
described as one of the greatest bloodbaths and
wreckages in Igboland started.
On that fateful night, prayers and offertory in various churches to herald the
Easter day coincided with the wake-keeping of an
illustrious son of Aguleri, Chief Mike Edozie, a one time chairman of the
council area.
However, either by omission or commission, bullets were being fired
indiscriminately which were believed to be sequel to the
celebration of Good Friday or the burial ceremony of the deceased as is the
tradition amongst the Igbos.
The Post Express gathered that it was when there were reports of killings which
coincided with the setting ablaze of residential
buildings, churches, shops, schools, local government secretariat among others,
that it dawned on Umuoba-Anam, a
neighbouring town, Umuleri and Aguleri that a bloody communal skirmish has
erupted with the perpetrators capitalising on the
Good Friday and the funeral ceremony to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting
indigenes of the three communities.
It was uncertain as to who first struck, but accusing fingers pointed at
Umuleri. They were said to have just recuperated after a
battle with Aguleri that sent them packing from their ancestral homes about four
years ago which prompted the state
government's 1995 white paper on the Aguleri and Umuleri crisis.
As the war continued, the Onitsha/Otuocha/Nsukka Expressway which passes through
the warring communities was barricaded
and bonfires made on both the expressway and other major streets within Otuocha,
the council headquarters, thereby making
movement to and from the warring communities impossible.
Fleeing indigenes from the three communities, Umuoba-Anam, Aguleri and Umuleri,
had to either escape through the River
Omambala or head towards Nando and Igbariam to avoid the wrath of militant
youths, who, armed to the teeth, took to strategic
points, singing war songs and wreaking havoc.
Shouts and cries of death, pains, kidnap, missing persons and hostages rent the
air but to no avail as the fleeing indigenes that
included pregnant women, aged people and children were conscious of getting to
safety outside the war-torn areas.
The Umuoba-Anam people were good swimmers. They swarm to the other side of River
Omambala where they were joined by
their next of kin's though as refugees.
This prompted the clarion call by the caretaker committee chairman for Anambra
West Local Government Area, Mrs. Franca
Odukwe, to the state government, churches, individuals and humanitarian
organisations to come to the rescue of those
refugees whom she described as "pale and dejected."
Sophisticated military weapons, including dynamites and landmines, were freely
used by the warring parties. This, no doubt,
increased the death toll. Indeed, the state Police Public Relations Officer,
PPRO, Mr. Sani Mohammed, attested to the use of
such sophisticated weapons.
Security operatives, especially the police, were among the 500 reportedly killed
so far in the bloody communal lash which
lasted for weeks. Mercifully, there is a gradual return of normalcy now.
The chairman-elect of the Local government area, Mr. Fide Okafor, attributed the
clash to injustice, stressing that he hoped to
restore justice, fair play and peace to the war-torn areas.
"I am currently working on a theory aimed at making the area a better place to
live in and also supply them with clean water and
other facilities", he added.
Expressing surprise, a medical laboratory scientist from Aguleri, Mr. Pat
Manafa, advocated the immediate dissolution of the
executives of the town unions of the warring communities, alleging that they
were the architects of the crisis.
"They are men of questionable characters who thrive in crisis, the earlier they
are dissolved the better", he fumed.
The traditional ruler of Igbariam town, Igwe Kelly Nzekwe Kelly in his words
said: "the warring communities are barbarians, we
talk of development and they talk of destruction's. They are fools, the culprits
should be made to face the wrath of the law."
Igwe Kelly posited that if the location of the council headquarters at Otuocha
was the bone of discord, it should be relocated to a
better place for peace to prevail.
At some of the refugee camps visited, there was even discrimination in the camps
as the three warring communities live
separately.
A woman who had just put to bed told our correspondent at Bathany House Camp
Onitsha thus! "all of us here are from Umuleri, I
am Mrs. Ezinwa Theresa, a teacher at Umuleri Technical School. We were formerly
in the open space but thanks to Rev. Sister
Louisa Igwebilo who is in charge of accommodation within the mission premises
for allowing us, because of my baby, to stay
where we are staying now. Our major problems now are food, shelter and
accommodation."
At the Marine camp (bank of the River Niger) a Reverend Father-turned-refugee,
Father Udeze Karian, hinted that the bloodbath
and wreckage would be better imagined than described, "where do I start from, I
was in the church at Umuleri Catholic Church
when I suddenly saw people running helter skelter and within a twinkle of an
eye the church was set ablaze."
Narrating his ordeal further, he advocated that the panacea for everlasting
peace would be to order all the traditional rulers in
the war-torn areas to retire to the remote part of their domain and a "mayor":
appointed to govern Otuocha, (the council
headquarters) while the 1995 government white paper on the Umuleri and Aguleri
crisis should be immediately implemented.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and the President of all the
Presidents-General in the State, Chief Chimezie Ikeazor, told our
correspondent that with this ugly development, the number of the destitutes has
been increased. He blamed the state
government for allowing the war to escalate.
"Government was supposed to have acted on time to save the situation and not to
come in when there were damages to life and
property," he stressed.
The SAN who is the founder of Legal Aids Association of Nigeria, called on
humanitarian organisations, individuals, churches
and philanthropists to come to the rescue of the refugees who according to him
are dying in silence.
Red Cross Society of Nigeria has since the commencement of the war been battling
to save the lives of the victims some of
whom were disfigured.
The leaders of the Red Cross Society in the war-torn areas, doctor Peter Emeka
Katchy, when contacted declined comment as
he was so busy treating patients that included civilians, police and other
security operatives.
The police authorities said they have so far lost four of their own with four
still missing in the mayhem.
Although calm is beginning to return to the three communities, they still bear
the vestiges of war.
Again, vultures, those carnivorous birds with a fondness for carcasses, have
swooped on them, feasting on corpses and licking
up blood marks on the streets and the bushes.
Meanwhile video recording of the carnage have been dispatched to the Presidency.
It is not yet certain what Aso Rock plans to
do to calm frayed nerves. But if the words from the Anambra State government
house are anything to go by, peace appears
imminent to a people that have been at war.