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No fewer than eleven(11) middle-aged men have been arrested by policemen, while about two hundred machetes/cutlasses and assorted charms allegedly brought by some sections of the Nnewi community in Anambra state to fight to prevent the building of the newly secured and approved Nnewi Township stadium in their area.
The industrial town is therefore currently being rocked by tension over the location for the siting of the stadium complex attracted by a lawmaker. Incidentally it was the only such project allegedly coming with the name of the lawmaker to it since he was elected.
The community leadership, according to reports had chosen to use the Ezemewi shrine large expanse of land within the Abubor Nnewi area for the project. But the plans evidently did not go down well with that section of the town at all who then mobilized its youth to prevent it.
Abubor-Nnewichi section of the community was reportedly vehemently opposed entry to the land where the new stadium was to be sited.
The President General(PG)’of Abubor-Nnewichi,Mr Chukwuemeka Alutu, alongside the Obi of Nnewichi, Chief Francis Okeke alleged that Otolo-Nnewi section of the town of trying to bully and intimidate their section of the town out of existence and reckoning.
Mr Alutu pointed out that his community is not opposed to the growth and development of Nnewi but that there is need to negotiate and dialogue with them before entering their land.
He said as a peace loving community, they have cried to the police authorities for protection which he noted prevented bloodbath over the weekend.
Mr Alutu however cautioned other sections of Nnewi against bullying Abubor because nobody can lay claim to monopoly of violence and intimidation. He thanked God that all the pressures from the local youths of Abubor have been restrained said emphatically that the elders of the community are restraining the Abubor youths at a very great efforts. This was to avoid total breakdown of law and order.
The Obi of Abubor- Nnewichi , Chief Okeke claimed that the deity that inhabits the shrine got about three hundred plots of land in dispute in 1904.
The Obi said that his community is not prepared to take on the other section of Nnewi town in a fight but warned against being pushed to the wall.
Confirming the arrests and recovery of the assorted dangerous weapons/charms, a senior police officer from the Nnewi Area Command who pleaded for anonymity disclosed that the culprits would soon be charged to court.
