Bloodshed in Ebonyi State: Two feared dead in communal land dispute

Amah Samuel-Ugbor Nnachi, Abakaliki

Tension has escalated in Ebonyi State as a communal land dispute turned violent, leaving two people feared dead and several others injured.

Two persons were allegedly killed in the renewed land crisis between the people of Umuobor-Akaeze and their Ogwor neighbour in the Ishiagu community both in the Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State

According to community sources, a man and a woman were killed by suspected warlords who laid ambush in the disputed land, on Monday.

The Mirror reports the two neighbouring communities have been at war for about five decades over a vast fertile land known as Elueke, with many lives lost and properties worth billions of naira destroyed.

The situation forced Governor Francis Nwifuru to declare the disputed land a buffer zone and set up a committee to solve the crisis.

Commenting on the crisis, Mr. Nwoba Chika Nwoba, a social media critic, said he had written to Governor Francis Nwifuru to urgently end the war.

According to him, “I got information that these aged persons were killed in the fight between Ishiagu & Akaeze in Ivo LGA of Ebonyi State.

“I had written twice earlier that the governor, Hon. Francis Nwifuru, should do something urgently to bring this to a halt, but I’m not sure he has done anything obvious to end the feud.

“I’m still calling on the Governor to do something to end this lest it becomes too difficult to handle.

“Every life matters, stakeholders of these two towns should join hands and get this unnecessary bloodshed quenched.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Joshua Ukandu, said he was yet to receive a report of the recent killings in the area.