Naija News

THE fragile peace in the war-torn Aguleri and Umuleri communities in
Anambra East Council of Anambra State is being threatened as the
former joined issues with the latter over alleged land encroachment.
Umuleri had recently, through Mr. George Obukwesili, accused Aguleri
of encroaching on their Aguakor land and threatened that "if the state
and federal governments should close their eyes and allow this gun
powder to explode, the 1995-1999crisis will be a child's play".
Aguleri dismissed the allegation, saying it was rather Umuleri
community that had unceremoniously withdrawn from a peace committee
set up by the two communities since 2004 to resolve all the land
issues between them.
In a statement in Umuahia by Chief Ralph Igwa, Chairman of Aguleri
Peace Committtee, he denied that there is "palpable tension between
the two communities."
Igwa said the impression "does not reflect the current situation in
the area and it is inconsistent with the facts regarding the present
state of the relationship between the two communities".
He however regretted that Umuleri pulled out of the peace committee
without any reason and resorted to using the police to harass Aguleri
people, which, he said, was "capable of engendering renewed tension
between the two erstwhile hostile communities".
He urged Umuleri to return to the peace committee to enable the
communities thrash out the disagreement between them.
" The truth is that the two communities having failed to resolve their
age-long dispute through courts, tribunals or third party mediations,
took a bold peace initiative in 2004 by deciding to peacefully settle
their problem by themselves. And so, in March, 2004, the two
communities set up the Aguleri/Umuleri Peace Committee with mandate to
determine acceptable boundaries between Aguleri and Umuleri
communities", Igwa said.
According to him, the committee worked till 2004 till 2010 "when the
Umuleri representatives in the committee [allegedly] suddenly pulled
out without anyformal reason till date".
Aguleri therefore accused Umuleri of aborting the peace process and
called on them to return to the committee to discussany matter that
may be threatening the peace of the communities, even as they warned
the police not to allow themselves to be misused by Umuleri.