The Ebonyi State Government has expressed its strong commitment to full restoration of peace in the disputed boundary communities of Abomege and Ishinkwo in Onicha Local Government Area of the state, stressing that government will stop at nothing in restoring lasting peace in the area.
Chief Mathias Adum, the Principal Secretary to the Governor stated this on Thursday, when he led members of state adhoc committee on fact -finding meeting with both communities at Army Pin Down in Abomege over the petition written against the boundary demarcation implementation committee by Ishinkwo people, who accused the demarcation committee of bias and deviation in favor of Abomege community, an accusation which turned out to be false.
He lamented that the age-long boundary dispute has claimed so many lives, recent one was the killing of Ishinkwo traditional ruler by the Ishinkwo youth accusing the late Eze of supporting the government to cede their land to Abomege community.
Speaking to our reporter, Chief Adum has this to say;, "this is an adhoc committee set up by the government to see to the end of the protracted crisis between the Abomege and the Ishinkwo communites.
"It has been an age-long crisis that has bedeviled the two communities.
And the last count, Ishinkwo people lost their traditional ruler, Eze Josephat Ikegwu, and it is a terrible experience for the government and the entire state.
"The governor is highly saddened and he doesn't want such a thing to repeat itself. So he set up another committee to come and see what is going on here and to properly inform the Ishinkwo people who wrote a petition against the committee that is carrying out the the permanent demarcation of boundary between the Ishinkwo and the Abomege communities, because along the line, there was these speculations generated from the realm of nothing and it was sold down to Ishinkwo people that their late traditional ruler has sold out to the extent that they were calling him "white paper traditional ruler".
In fact, it led to the killing of the traditional ruler by the same Ishinkwo people.
They were told that the committee that was doing the demarcation had deviated in favor of Abomege community, but that was not correct.
"That there is an existing beacons on boundary and bearings and the government wanted to know the truth, wether the white paper that was issued by the same state government had given a permanent boundary, only to discover there was no boundary.
The time that the committee that went to sort out the boundary problem concluded, it was during the rainy season.They couldn't have gone into the swamp and mesh area to do the demarcation.
They advised the government they should do permanent demarcation between the two warring communities during the dry season, and that is ongoing. They have done this job up to 90%.before this attack started again, the governor had to ask us to carry the white paper,
give it to Ishinkwo people to read in the presence of their community members,
both in English and in their vernacular and good enough, you people were there.
After reading it, they now agreed that there was no existing permanent demarcation already done by the previous committee.
And the white paper was advised that a permanent boundary should be done now in the presence of both Ishinkwo and Abomege people, whenever they agree on a particular place, that place should be beconned.
Let it remain the permanent boundary. That has been going on. So, until they reach a particular place,
that's where they started having this crisis.
We have to go there today to let them know the truth.
We gave them the white paper.They read it in English.
They interpreted it in their vernacular. They have now agreed that they have made a mistake, and we advise them that they should go home
and address the entire community and tell them the truth.
"The government wants to bring peace there by giving permanent boundary.
The government will stop at nothing in concluding this matter, which have lasted over the years.
"You know, based on this speculation, that their traditional rulers sold out,
they went to court, they even started fighting their traditional rulers,
who had, even before he was killed, named those who are going after him.
So, after today, I think they understood the entirety,
that they have made a terrible mistake in their life", Chief Adum concluded .
The Commissioner for Border peace and conflict resolution, Prof Paul Awo Nwobashi, and his Lands and survey counterpart, Dr Matthew Nwobashi called on the people of Ishinkwo to give peace a chance for their own good, noting that no progress will occur in a crisis ridden area. They advised them to withdraw the legal suit instituted against the state government to enable government conclud the Dems action process and restore permanent peace in the warring communities.
"We have gotten our findings today. We are going to brief the governor. We urge Ishinkwo people to withdraw the suit against government within seven days so that the committee will conclud their job and ensure that peace is restored.
On his part, the Executive chairman, Onicha Local area, Hon.Ikechukwu Ogbofia, expressed gratitude to the Governor, whom he described as peace builder, for his untireles efforts in ensuring that peace prevail in the boundary dispute between Abomege and Ishinkwo communites which he said, dated back from 1912, and has claimed not less than 300 lives.
He pledged to do everything within his reach to ensure that permanent peace is restored in the area.
"We all know that this war started since 1912.
And I want to start by thanking His Excellency, Right Honorable Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, the man that loved peace. Having known that this crisis started for over a hundred and something years, but after his swearing in as the Executive governor of our state, he stepped into the boundary dispute between Abomege and Ishinkwo to make sure there is peace in area, The boundary demarcation is almost 90% now. And the committee that visited the place today.
I want to assure them as a local government chairman, I I will do everything within my reach to make sure there is absolute peace in Ishinkwo and Abomege.
I will support His Excellency, the governor, to make sure there is peace.
And I want to tell you that the ones I know that Abomege and Ishinkwo have lost so many persons, more than 300, the ones that I know.
And we can't continue killing ourselves because of piece of land.
I want to commend them.
And as a government, I will support them 100% to make sure that the governor finishes that boundary demarcation".
Also speaking, the traditional ruler of Abomege community, HRH Eze Augustine Imeka recounted the urgly effects of the protracted boundary dispute and promised to support all efforts towards the restoration of peace in the area. He called on his Ishinkwo brothers to do same.
Earlier, a member of Ishinkwo community, Mr John Nwokpoku red out the resolution of the white paper and interpreted same in their dialect to his people, after which they all accepted the position of the white paper, assuming government of their readiness to embrace peace.
Surveyor general of the state, Surveyor John Agbedi , HoD conflict management in the ministry of border peace and conflict resolution, Dr Martins Igwurubel were among those in the entourage of the committee.
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