Ebonyi Communal Crisis: White Paper Recommends Demarcation

The Government of Ebonyi State on Monday released a white paper on the protracted land dispute between Amana in Ezza South Local Government Area and Ohankwu in Ikwo Local Gov­ernment Areas of the state which claimed many lives and properties.

The document which was sighted by The Eastern Updates recommended demar­cation of the disputed areas.

The committee set up by the government over the crisis recommended immediate re-establishment of cement boundary pil­lars to end the crisis taking bearing from existing ones to determine the owners of the disputed lead site and surrounding farmlands under contention.

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The Commissioner for Information and State Orientation in the state, Jude Okpor, disclosed this yesterday in Abaka­liki, the state capital at a press briefing.

‘The White Paper dated 8th Novem­ber, 2023 and endorsed by the Attor­ney-General and Commissioner for Jus­tice, contained Government’s statements of adoption of the Committee’s recom­mendations and the Governor’s directive to concerned ministries and department to implement same.

‘The Committee from their findings set aside the earlier report of the Ebonyi State Peace Committee which recom­mended government’s acquisition of the disputed land and properties and its subsequent partitioning between the contending communities. They observed that the CAN committee did not consult archival evidence before arriving at its decision,’ he state.

Okpor noted that the committee fur­ther found out that the discovery of lead, a mineral in commercial quantity in the area and the removal of the cement boundary beacons established by the co­lonial masters were the immediate and remote causes of the crisis.

The Eastern Updates