Awesome Chinecherem
People of Umu Aana clan of Umuogbo -Agu community, Enugu Ezike, Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State have raised the alarm over alleged threat of invasion by three other clans from Umuogbo-Agu community.
They sent Save Our Soul, SOS, message to Enugu State Government, Inspector General of Police, IGP, Director General of Department of State Services, DSS, to intervene by investigating alleged acquisition of weapons currently going on in preparation for their attack.
Addressing newsmen in Onitsha, Anambra State, spokesman of Umu Aana clan, Mr. Ugwu Ugwu, alleged that the planned attack was informed by their rejection of the Umuogbo-Agu Community Constitution Review in which they were excluded from participating in, but later found out that their deceased brothers’ names and signatures were inserted in the reviewed constitution.
His words, “What is really boiling our minds is, based on our peoples agitation against the constitution review, outcome of the review and treatment against our people particularly the purported ex-communication of our people by the actors in the constitution review, and the wickedness still running in the minds of those men, we did not know that they are still planning an evil attack on us, and so we raised alarm when we discovered their plans.
“As I’m talking to you now, we have names of over 300 people who will be contributing money to buy weapons to attack us. We have names of over forty of them who have contributed the money. We never believed the plan was real until we saw the account details and the number of people that have contributed N100,000 to 50,000 and N20,000 respectively.
“We were lucky to get into the platform where they have been having their meetings and discussing it. That was how we got the knowledge of what they are planning and the account details for the contribution for the weapon of attack.
“We have gone to the IGP’s office in Abuja crying for help, we have gone to the Enugu State Commissioner of Police to investigate the matter and they said we should give them time, precisely one week, but delay is dangerous because we don’t know when they will attack us. We are asking the police if they want them to attack us before they will do something.
“One of the main sponsors of the crisis going on in our community has ambition for the seat of the traditional ruler of our Umuogbo Agu community. We were told by the court to suspend everything concerning the selection or election of the traditional ruler of the community because you cannot elect Igwe with an illegal constitution.
“But he and his cohorts refused and they have been served with contempt of court proceedings, yet they have continued to disobey the court and have refused to respond to Police invitations.
“This is the account details for the money they are contributing for the weapons to attack us, Ameh Festus / Ngwu Obiora. Acct. No. 3080081429. Polaris Bank. We want the DSS to investigate the account to know if we are not saying the truth. As it is now the Police is nothing to them, they don’t have respect for the law and the Police. We have done what we are supposed to do as a community by going to the court, Police, DSS and other security agencies in the state and beyond, to complain and we are waiting for responses from these bodies.
“In Umuogbo-Agu our community, illegality is what is reigning now, every leadership is illegal now, the tenure of the President General has expired, the tenure of the Chief Security Officer, CSO, and others have expired, but they have continued to perpetrate themselves in office, in fact they have given themselves tenure extension, trying to cause trouble in the community.
“Anybody who challenges them they declare him and his clan excommunicated. They said they have excommunicated us the,Umu Aana and Umu Onoda clans and gave us conditions to be part of Umuogbo-Agu again.
“Their plan to continue to stay in office after the expiration of their tenure in December last year, is to install certain things that they need, including the Igwe seat, which made them to forge the constitution in the name of reviewing constitution, before they will hand over but we challenged them and they are not happy with us.
“We went to Court and Police because we know that those institutions are stronger than us, but if they the Court and Police cannot do anything, if anything evebtually happens in the community, they should not blame us because we have notified the world of what is happening. I as a person, nobody should blame me because I have complained to the appropriate authorities to take action and tame those individuals causing trouble.
“It is regrettable that the daughters of the community, the Umuada,s claimed they wanted to intervene in the matter but from their actions, we believe they were playing games, their intervention was suspicious. They came to court and we believe they were sent by the people causing the crisis in our community. They said they want to make peace for us and we agreed, they begged us, the Umu Aana and Umu Onoda, that they will tell the court that they want to make peace for us, our people agreed and they came to court and the court asked them when they want to make the peace, that they should chose the time that suits them.
“They asked us if we want peace and our people told them we are ever ready on any date they fix and Umu Onoda said the same thing, the Umu Okpuye, Umunasaa and Umuowaa, said that Easter Monday is the best date when everybody will be at home and we accepted, but to our surprise, they went and fix their clan meeting on Easter Monday we agreed in the court for the general meeting and postponed the community meeting that is supposed to hold on Easter Monday to Tuesday.
“As we were complaining that the Easter Monday meeting which involves the Umuada’s was postponed to Tuesday, the Umuada wrote a letter shifting the meeting to April 6th 2024 instead of the earlier agreed Easter Monday 1st April by all the parties involved in the disagreement. It was this reason that we started seeing the request by Umuada to intervene as smock-screen and a planned game to deceive us. We are suspecting that the Umuada’s are not real, they are working for the other parties to deceive us. They are one sided in their so called intervention for peace.
“For postponing the Easter Monday 1st April meeting to Saturday 6th April 2024, it means they want the installation of Igwe to hold before the meeting and by then the positions the other parties to the disagreement need will be filled. Their deviation from the early agreement in line with the court position is suspicious and shocking, the court has been informed about the development and the court has ordered that every preparation for election or appointment of the Igwe and subsequent installation should be suspended until we conclude with the peace meeting and get back to it.
“Our position is that if the daughters of the community, the Umuada are honest in the peace they claimed they want to make for us, they should not have changed the date of the meeting. Again when you want to make peace or do things like that, there are people you have to consult from different clans involved in the disagreement, before the time of the peace meeting, to know what is their grouse, this they did not do. You can’t just come in and say you want to make peace. You must go behind and ask people questions to ensue you achieve lasting peace. We don’t trust the ways of Umuada.
“We the Umu Aana are truly crying for help, we are crying to the government, the Police, the Court because we are under threat. We have been excommunicated. Our fathers went for the community Council of Elders Meeting and they were told to go home that they have been banished and given some penalties that they must pay before they will be accepted back to Umuogbo-Agu community. They were told to buy cow, cook food and provide drinks that will be enough for the entire community before they will be accepted back as members of the community. All these conditions and intimidations can cause crisis in the community, that is our worry and fear.
“We have however told them that whenever they are ready for peace, they will pay our fathers for all the things that have been denied them for the period of their purported excommunication because there are some royalties they are supposed to be receiving that have been denied them. There are monies paid by certain community that have been denied them, the other parties have been eating the money without Umu Aana getting their share.
“It is on record that they are banishing and finning Umu Aana because we said that we cannot run the community with forged constitution. Even in that constitution, they deliberately excluded a clan which is a part of Umu Aana, and it was aimed at reducing the strength of Umu Aana clan. We are calling on Enugu Srate government to come into the matter to avert violent clashes “
