Ostracisation: Enugu community raises alarm over plot to seize ancestral lands

The people of Edeaniagu Clan in Ishi-Ozalla Community, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State have again raised an alarm over an alleged plot by some individuals in their area to forcefully take over their ancestral lands.

DAILY POST reports that despite interventions from both the government and Christian organisations, allegations of ostracization linger in Edeaniagu.

This time, the community has called on the Inspector General of Police, the Commander 82 Division Nigerian Army, Enugu, and other security agencies to protect them from the recent wave of kidnapping of their people.

They, however, vowed that no amount of intimidation would deter them from the pursuit of peace, justice and equity in Ishi-Ozalla, where every citizen would be treated equally and without segregation.

Speaking with journalists in Enugu at the end of an expanded Edeaniegu Clan Executive/Stakeholders meeting, the people also called on the Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah to urgently address the crisis rocking the community before it degenerated to a more serious issue.

Narrating their ordeals, the Youth Leader of Edeaniagu Clan, Chief Odirachukwu Nweke expressed shock over the desperation of some individuals to continue oppressing other people regardless of its consequences, describing land grabbing as a sacrilege in their community.

He said, “We just recently called on the whole world to come to Ishi-Ozalla and see how we live and who gets what.

“Not minding the position of our clan at the center of the community, greater percentage of the community lands belong to our ancestors, including the village square, market and the one housing our deities.

“How can you be a master for decades and you share land to others more than yourself? Or you bought where you are living.

“So, we are bent on exposing the age long manipulation in Ishi-Ozalla for the truth to come out.

“Now they have started chasing their shadows by boasting that they will use government connections to collect our lands from us. God forbid, our ancestors will fight for us.”

Also speaking, an octogenarian, Chief Anthony Nweke warned against the consequences of trespassing into any of the ancestral lands of the Edeaniagu Clan and advised those “nursing such abominable acts in their minds to desist to avoid what he called generational curse.”

Chief Nweke regretted that the four autonomous communities in Ozalla Kingdom are presently without a traditional ruler, while more than twenty communities in Nkanu West Local Government Area are without a traditional ruler.

He called on elders and stakeholders in the Ozalla Kingdom not to sweep the matter under the carpet.

Another elder from the community, Chief Joseph Nweke, whose son was recently kidnapped, said targeting Edeaniagu people for kidnapping was barbaric and urged security agencies to rise up to the challenges without further delay.

Nweke insisted that the people of Edeaniagu were the Aborigines in Ishi-Ozalla and challenged anyone with contrary opinion to come up with verifiable story of where they migrated, noting that nobody from Edeaniagu was among the leadership of both the traditional or Town Union in the community.

“We are ready to get to the root of the matter. Enough of these intimidation and segregation against our people in their father’s land.

“Just a few days ago, the quota job opportunity from UNTH was out. We learnt that Ishi-Ozalla got 10 slots, likewise other autonomous communities in Ozalla.

“Nobody will even tell us and they will share it with their sons and daughters. None will be given to the Edeaniagu people.

“That is what has been going on for decades now, not minding that our own family land taken for the hospital is more than 10 hecters. That is wickedness.

“We were also reliably informed that there is a stage-managed reconciliation visit that will happen soon in our area, where some people are planning to go and beg for forgiveness and pledge loyalty on behalf of the Edeaniagu Clan.

“I think it is time to invoke the spirit of our forefathers to fight our battle,” he warned.

The community again appealed to the Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah to grant its request for an autonomous community as a veritable measure to achieve sustainable peace, equity, unity and progress.