Anambra CP intervenes as Awka communities clash over land

Ezinano and Umuzuocha communities both in Awka South Local Government Area on Saturday clashed over a protracted land tussle.

Both communities have been at loggerheads over a piece of land, which both communities were laying claims to.

Hundreds of indigenes of Ezinano community, including their leaders, women and youths had stormed the land at the weekend, when heavily armed men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the state police command ordered them out on the prompting of Umuzuocha community.

The fracas was however arrested through the intervention of Anambra State Commissioner of Police, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam.

Members of Ezinano community who spoke to journalists on the matter said they visited the land in protest when they heard that Umuzuocha people had started building on the disputed land.

Mr Ezenwa Udoka said: “We were confronted by police people who threatened to shoot us on our own land. It took the intervention of the commissioner for us to be saved.

“What would have happened would have been genocide because they meant it when they said they would shoot us.”

Mrs.Gloria Chiama, a farmer, called on the relevant authorities to call the police to order as “police do not meddle in matters of land dispute between communities and individuals rather maintain law and order.”

Elders and leaders of the Ezinano Community said they had earlier written a petition dated September 11th 2024 to the chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC) which was copied to the Presidency, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Complaint Response Unit of the Police Force Headquarters Abuja and Commissioner of Police, Anambra State against a senior police officer over alleged meddlesomeness in the same land.

When DAILY POST reached out to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga he urged the leaders and people of Ezinano community to come forward with a formal complaints to the police in the state.

He said, “You know the truth, you and me have been in this Anambra for many years.

“This particular group (Ezinano people), if they have any issue, they should come straight to the command. If they have any issue, they have the numbers of the Commissioner of Police and they have my own number; if they have any issue they can come to the command and lay their complaints.”