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A group known as Oduma Peace Ambassadors has sued for a lasting solution to the age long crisis between Amagu and Ameke villages in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the group was formed to facilitate the process of ending the feud.
The crisis has spanned over a century, leading to loss of many lives and valuables in the area.
The leader of the group, Chief Akpa Edeh, told NAN in Enugu that the crisis had assumed an “endemic and frightening” dimension, hence the need for concerted efforts to end it.
Edeh said the group was made up of prominent sons and daughters of Oduma clan, who were disturbed by the embarrassing dispute between the two villages.
He said that the crisis, which spilled from a land dispute, had severed the robust inter-communal relationship, including inter-marriages, between the villages.
He said that it had become imperative for individuals and groups to support the state government’s intervention to bring lasting peace to the area.
Edeh said, “This crisis has been there before we were born but we want it stopped now.
“We thank the state government for its intervention which halted the escalation of the crisis, following the January 27 uprising that led to the death of one person in the area.
“We expected that a judicial panel of inquiry would have been set up to look into the matter holistically with a view to recommending a lasting solution,” he said.
Edeh urged government to take over the contentious piece of land at the border between the two villages as a way to end the protracted crisis.
Also, Mr Joe Onyeabor from Ameke Village said that the deep-seated dispute between the two villages had become a major concern to Oduma clan.
Onyeabor said the mission of the group was to restore peace in the area.
“Since I was born, no member of my community has got married to anyone from Amagu Village because of this problem. So many things are wrong,” he said.
He said that an effort was made to site a market on the disputed land that would benefit the two communities and others.
“However, if that market will continue to cause crisis, we advise the state government to take over the land and use it for something else.
“That market has been a thorn in the flesh of Oduma people,” Onyeabor said.
The President-General, Ameke Autonomous Community, Martins Anayochukwu, said that the community would remain law abiding anticipating a permanent solution to the crisis.
Also, Ndubisi Anthony, said that they grew up to hear that it was a taboo for the two communities to intermarry due to the dispute.
Anthony, however, said that the younger generation was ready to settle the differences between the feuding villages.
He said that it would be in the interest of the two communities to co-exist peacefully.
NAN reports that Oduma clan, which is famous with the production of rice and other staple foods, comprises 24 villages, inluding Amagu and Ameke villages.
THE SUN, NIGERIA
