Umahi Settles Ezza/Ezillo Crisis As Peace Returns To Ezillo Community In Ebonyi

Umahi Is A Peacemaker Genuis

EZZA/EZILLO CRISIS: AS FINAL PEACE RETURNS TO EZILLO, UMAHI IS A PEACE BUILDER GENIUS.

By Philip Nweze

A strange atmosphere of peace and tranquility pervaded Ezillo Community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi state on Thursday 6th June 2017 in what seems to be an end to the 9 year skirmishes brought about by the bloody Ezza Ezillo crisis. After years of crisis and irreconcilable differences which polarized Ezza and Ezillo communities, peace has at last returned to the area as stakeholders met over the week at the Government House Abakaliki, to bury the hatchet. Many were surprised to see former arch enemies on both sides sit side by side without molestations, signalling the final return of peace and security to the town previously under siege. Ezza and Ezillo people, two parallel lines that never saw eye to eye exchanged love, under the watch of the state Governor, they embraced each other in jubilation, after which both communities expressed their unalloyed appreciation to the leadership of the Governor for bringing the much desired peace in the land of Ezillo and Ezza-Ezillo, and made a lifetime commitment to abide by any decisions taken by the state government henceforth. They showed uncommon understanding and maturity, making concessions, including conceding land.

As a sign of goodwill, the people of Ezillo welcomed the state government's pronouncement to create Autonomous Community for Ezza-Ezillo settlers in Ezillo community on the 500 hectares of land earlier mapped out for resettlement of the Ezzas by the peace committee constituted by the state government. He requested two lawyers from both sides for inclusion into a legal team that would draft a government policy document which would be gazetted into law as a binding legal instrument for the peace deal.

Before now, members of each com­munity avoided anything that would take them to the other community. When it is unavoidable to ply the Abakaliki/ Enugu expressway, the Ezza man would disguise. So would the Ezillo man if he had to go through any route in the Ezza axis. The di­vision permeated all of their social activities. They had two parallel groups that never saw eye to eye. They lived like cat and dog, working against each other in a manner that led to the hiring of youths from time to time to unleash mayhem on each other.

The latest attempt at peace cost the Governor and his team days and nights of brainstorming, hard-work, trekking, mapping, inspecting, planting of tree but in the end the aim was achieved at last. The peace that left their household many years ago after a communal war broke out is back.

No doubt, Ebonyi state has witnessed a number of intra communal clashes; some interstate clashes involving neigh­boring states of Cross River and Benue; but none had dealt a deadly blow on the people of the state as the Ezza/Ezillo clashes. The scuffle which broke out in the two communi­ties in Ishielu local gov­ernment area of the state on 10th May, 2008, has claimed hundreds of lives, including pregnant women and children.

The Abakaliki/Enugu Expressway, at a time, became major war front where road users be­came major victims of the war. Bodies of massa­cred people were thrown into rivers and streams.

The then governor of the state, Chief Martin Elechi, in the company of armed security person­nel that arrived the Ezilo community, witnessed the mass murder, and broke down in tears. Elechi set up committees that inves­tigated the incident, which came up with resolutions. The administration’s ap­proach failed to deliver appreciable resolution to the disputes. Whereas the Ezza people felt they were unduly sacked from the land, the Ezillo people saw Elechi’s tactics to the feud as not being holistic.

Engr. David Umahi, in his 2015 governor­ship campaign, promised that he would throw up sustainable resolution to the Ezza/ Ezillo disputes. And he was true to his word. Not many people under­stood why Umahi earlier in his administration, cut uncommon relationship with the Ezza and Ezillo communities. He ap­pointed people from both communities into sensitive positions, demonstrated high level of confidence in them. Some of them whom he considered in­fluential were in some cases, drafted into the af­fairs of his administration.

With the assurance that he had gained the trust of the people of the areas, Governor Umahi set up a reconciliatory committee headed by his Deputy, Dr. Eric Kelechi Igwe, to negotiate peace for the Ezza/Ezillo kits and kin.

The committee, after series of meetings, visita­tions, trekked through the troubled and de­serted Ezza/Ezillo lands submitted their reports and recommendations. Convinced that the job was well done, for the purpose of the signing of agree­ment between the Ezza and Ezillo, the state gov­ernment declared a public holiday and announced that every 5th of Septem­ber would be observed as peace day in Ebonyi state. Ebonyi people defied heavy downpour to mark the day as they converged at the Abakaliki Town­ship Stadium. Governor Umahi, while addressing the gathering, commended the two factions for agree­ing to lay down their weap­ons and embrace peace, while lamenting that lives and property worth bil­lions of naira had been lost to the ugly incident. He commended the peace and reconciliation com­mittee headed by the Dep­uty Governor, Dr. Kelechi Igwe, for coming up with a workable recommenda­tion that has brought peace to the communities while reiterating the readiness of the state government to rehabilitate and compen­sate the victims of the war.

The Governor, who set up an implementation committee of 3R of Recon­ciliation, Reconstruction, Rehabilitation headed by the Senior Special Adviser on Religious and Welfare, Very Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali further enjoined the two factions to live in peace in their designated lands. He said the state would mark 5th of September every year as Ebonyi Peace day to commemorate the peace Umahi’s administration achieved in the Ezillo and Ezza-Ezillo community.

What triggered the Ezza/Ezillo crisis was in itself ridiculous. The story was that two persons, an Ezillo man and an Ezza man had misunderstand­ing over erection of a mini phone booth near their Eke Market. Because of deep nursed animos­ity, some members of the two communities saw the mere misunderstanding as a chance to vent their bottled anger.

With the situation, the re­lationship was like a keg of gun powder that exploded with the least glint of fire. As God would have it, peace has returned to the area.

The governor since assumption of office has intensified efforts to end the tussle and restore peace in the land driven by the conviction that offense against a brother does not get to the marrow. With a view to resolving the over nine-year crisis in which over 100 persons lost their lives, Ebonyi state government in April begun a field tracing on the disputed land measuring about three kilometre radius, cutting across a portion of Abakaliki-Enugu Expressway and endowed with economic trees and stone deposits.

Driven by his peaceful disposition and courage he kept pushing harder, stomached accusations and counter accusations, endured name calling and misrepresentations walked through forests, trekked long distances under scorching sun, until the elusive peace finally came. Today all parties have realized the need for reconciliation and sacrifice.

In addition to this, the state government also agreed to compensate owners of property destroyed during the Ezillo and Ezza-Ezillo communal clashes in Ishielu Local Government Area of the state. To do this, the government will negotiate with them on the best approach to rehabilitate them, compensate them and reunite them with their household.

This is a powerful string only a smart governor can pull.

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