- No, We Lost No Life, Says SSG
No fewer than ten lives and about one hundred houses were lost in the recent boundary clash between Kogi and Anambra communities near the Orient Petroleum Resources oil drilling facilities in Aguleri, Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra state.
The traditional ruler of Mkpunando-Aguleri, the Anambra border community where the citizens of Ibaji LGA of Kogi state and their Anambra state neighbours have been engaged in a communal clash in the last 3 weeks has confirmed there were casualties.
The monarch admitted with sadness that his community as well as their neighbours in Kogi lost about 10 lives, about 100 houses and equal number of farms was burnt down in the wake of the clash.
Contrary to that the secretary to Anambra state government, Mr. Oseloka Obaze said there was no life lost and that calm has now been restored in the whole area
He thanked the Anambra state government for their efforts in drafting police and soldiers to the area to maintain peace. He however lamented that the area involved was large and bushy as the taskforce was limiting their patrol on the road areas and fights erupt in the hinterlands that were not accessible with vehicles.
He said he cannot blame anyone for saying there were no casualties since they were yet to report formally until all the details were received.
Edozieuno confirmed that the clash has been as old as history but was recently intensified as a result of the drilling of oil on Aguleri soil by the Orient Petroleum Resources.
He said, “The crises had been there even before I was born, in the days of our fore fathers. The area is the boundary between the Northern and Eastern regions. But when the civil war ended in 1970, the Odeke people started usurping the victory of the Nigerian army over the east to their advantage by attempting to encroach on our lands. We had continued to resist them. It was then like a quiet cauldron until about three weeks ago when they invaded our people while asleep in the night killing and torching houses.
“Naturally my people resisted and defended themselves. I have kept the state and local government in daily contact as well as the police with the situation report.
“I have also maintained a regular contact with the monarch of Ibaji, John Egwemi on the way to a lasting peace.
“I call on the FG and the national Boundaries Commission to make their stand public. I have assured all citizens of the area that we are brothers, in-laws and are related or linked ancestrally, biologically. We share a lot in common from history and we have maintained same today. Eri who was father of Agulu was also the father of Ibaji. During the last flood disaster our people took in all of them, protected and helped them”, Igwe Edozieun
