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SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021—13 •Burnt house of ex Anambra Commissioner By Vincent Ujumadu, Awka THE protracted land dispute between Anaku and Omor communities in Ayamelum local government area of Anambra State, which has lasted about 100 years, early this week claimed the lives of three persons, including two policemen posted to the area. In the latest clash between the two communities, a former chief judge of Anambra State who hailed from Omor was physically assaulted, while the country home of a former Commissioner in the Willie Oboano administration, Dr. Christian Madubuko and 30 other mansions in Anaku were set ablaze. The National Youth Service Corps members’ lodge and teachers’ quarters close to the police station in the town were heavily torched and looted and the Youth Corps members have fled. When Saturday Vanguard visited the troubled communities, the entire area was deserted as the people had abandoned their homes and fled into the bush and to neighbouring communities where they take refuge. The only secondary school in Anaku, Ogbe High School, has been closed down and all markets and primary schools have also been deserted. Following the incident, Governor Obiano has imposed an indefinite curfew between 7,pm and 6am in the area, while the state police command has beefed up security in the area. At the Anaku Police Station, the policemen looked dejected after losing their colleagues to the clash. Fortunately, the hoodlums who burnt the houses did not attack the police station, despite the fact that it is located close to some of the houses destroyed. At the palace of the traditional ruler of Anaku, Igwe Peter Oforkansi, his two – storey building, two bungalows and six vehicles were burnt and whereabouts of all members of the royal household could not be ascertained. Also, burnt vehicles littered the major Otuocha –Anaku – Omor road. Saturday Vanguard gathered that the policemen lost their lives while trying to stop youths suspected to be from Omor from invading Anaku. The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Owolabi said he has already commenced investigation to find out what led to the attack. An indigene of Anaku, Mr. Michael Atumanya recalled that a similar attack took place in 2020, adding that stakeholders had to intervene to restore peace in the area. He said: “The people of Amikwe Omor invaded a piece of land belonging to Obukwu kindred, Anaku in April 2020, but the matter was timely managed by Ayamelum LGA which settled it with the active participation of the traditional rulers of the two communities. “An agreement was signed on 28 April 2020 that everybody should maintain How 100 year –old land dispute sent two policemen, one other to early graves in Anambra •Monarch’s palace, ex Commissioner’s house, 30 others burnt peace and status-quo. Unfortunately, Omor people started building houses on the disputed area of land belonging to Anaku such that by the time the constituted boundary adjustment committee visited the area, they were already claiming ownership of the place. While they were scrambling for land, a fight ensured among them and they started destroying structures. “This latest action is not unusual, as over the years, they have always employed both violent and nefarious means for forceful annexation of lands belonging to neighbouring towns. Anaku people have always been at the receiving end of this age-long land dispute between the two communities.” According to Atumanya, in 2008, the people of Omor attacked late Mr. Ayaduno Obodeze and other indigenes of Anaku at Igbachala farmland which eventually led to his untimely death. The same year, they massacred late Mr Ozoemena Edunor. In 2016 their mercenaries decimated late Mr. Okaka Atumanya on the same piece of land; took his •Another burnt house in Anaku body away and mutilated it. “The matter was reported to the government and suspects charged to court but, it died in Otuocha High Court without justice. In 2015, they demolished Obukwu Town hall and the country homes of Mr. Raphael Onochie, Stephen Ndife, Chijioke Okechukwu, Oranefo Nwakwudo. In 2019 they equally burnt down Ayamelum customary court at Ikpa Obukwu Anaku. “These clashes led to wanton destruction of multiple lives and properties worth huge amounts of money. Of greater importance is the atmosphere of bitterness, resentment, enmity, daunting and protracted legal suits such conflicts create among the neighbouring towns in the local government, thereby defeating the aim of working together as brothers and sisters and coexisting harmoniously in peace for the achievement of progress and development in our local government as a political unit.” Investigation showed that in the 1920s, the people of Igbariam in Anambra East local government area were crossing the Ezu River to Anaku to claim farmlands, which Anaku said, was unexpected given the fact that Ezu River was a natural boundary. The encroachment was then duly resisted by the people of Obukwu and this led to a litigation process at the native court during the colonial era. During the litigation, the people of Amikwe (Omor) and Umuerike (Umerum), offered their support to the people of Obukwu. After the case was won by Obukwu, and to ensure no further encroachments to the farmlands, the people of Amikwe (Omor), Obukwu (Anaku) and Umuerike (Umerum) struck an agreement to allow free farming on their borders. In 1974, when the Shell-BP Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited came to the area for oil exploration, the people of Obukwu, Anaku invited the other two communities of Amikwe (Omor) and Umuerike (Umuerum) to become co-owners of the oil wells. At that time, land was in abundance and there was relative peace among the people. A twelve -man committee, comprising four members from each community, was raised to oversee the activities of Shell on the land. Also, in 1980 the Federal Government provided an irrigation infrastructure for the benefit of the local farmers in the area. The land for the rice fields were acquired from Umumbo, Omor, Umuerum, and Anaku communities. The Lower Anambra/Imo Irrigation Project (LAIP) was achieved using a location map (1982), created by the Federal Government and authorities of the irrigation project allocated specific number of plots to each of the four communities according to the size of land expropriated from them. The land of Amikwe (Omor), Obukwu, Ikenga (Anaku) and Umuerike (Umerum) communities jointly constitute the South West Zone of the project. Atumanya called on the Anambra State government to use the available topographical information to intervene in the land dispute to ensure that peace was restored in the area and justice done on the matter. According to him, the intervention would also ensure that boundaries between Omor and Anaku, Omor and Umumbo, Omor and Igbakwu, as well as other communities in the area, were properly delineated for peace to reign. •Burnt palace of Igwe Peter Oforkansi •Deserted Anaku road
14—SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22 , 2021 DELTA 2023: Deconstructing Okowa! By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South Gov’s riveting tactics FOR some leaders and collections in Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Delta State, who thought they could outfox the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, in the hot scramble for his successor in 2023, he unconstrained some brain teasers, during the week and drove political spin doctors back to the drawing board. Many have found it intriguing and difficult to understand the governor’s pronouncements in Owa-Alero in Ika North East and actions in the past six days, especially as to who succeeds him. What baffled strategists is his startling bluntness in where they expected him to be diplomatic. As if adding to the conundrum, the governor on Tuesday sacked all his Commissioners, Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Special Advisers, Political Strategist, Senior Political Adviser and Special Advisors, saying a number of them had entangled themselves in the politics of 2023 and causing distractions to governance. Ibori, Amori, DC-23 ambush However, the struggle for who succeeds Okowa did not just start in 2021. Everybody knows that it started in 2019 soon after he won his second term election. About September , 2019, former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori, former Minister of Information, Prof Sam Oyovbaire, chairman, Delta Capital Territory Development Agency, Chief Ighoyota Amori and other Delta Central senatorial district (Urhobo) PDP leaders, at Ibori’s Oghara country home in Ethipe-West local government area, were declaring that Governor Okowa, who hails from Delta North senatorial district (Anioma) would hand over power to the district in 2023, according to the subsisting power rotation arrangement among the three senatorial districts. The early meeting and declaration by Urhobo political leaders was to get the better of their counterparts from the Ijaw ethnic nationality in Delta South senatorial district, who have become vociferous in their demand that the next governor should proceed from their ethnic group. Ibori, who spoke at the meeting was quoted to have said: ”Governor Okowa during his campaign promised to handover to Delta Central and as a gentleman and promise keeper, we have no doubt in our minds that he will do everything within his God given powers to adhere strictly to his promise.” “We expect all genuine members of our great party, PDP, to comply with the power rotation agreement. It is for the good of all; majority and minority, the weak and the strong, for a balanced society. “Equity, justice and good conscience are some of the major pillars of constitutional democracy, hence PDP in Delta state encourages power rotation to enable both the majority and minority groups and or ethnic nationalities via senatorial districts power arrangements to produce governor, and the agreement remains sacrosanct,” he stated. Ibori added: “Let me also state clearly that 2023 is still much ahead and it is not time yet for political campaigns but we shall commence primary arrangements and wide consultations in the near future. We must remain united and avoid unnecessary division and attacks on personalities within and outside Delta Central Senatorial District as we make steady progress towards the historic inauguration of the next Urhobo governor come 2023.” A year and months after, in 2021, Chief Amori, marshaling other Urhobo leaders with Ibori behind the scene, has floated Delta Central 2023 (DC-23) to commence the said ‘primary arrangements and wide consultations…towards the historic inauguration of the next Urhobo governor in 2023’ obviously based on the aforementioned power rotation arrangement. Though the PDP contrivance or gentleman agreement that has seen power rotate from Delta Central to Delta South and Delta North from 1999 till date has brought a measure of peace and stability in the state, it was not really because governorship aspirants, especially those of Urhobo stock, respected it all these years, it appears to be more of the line of attack of the aspirant that finally emerged as standard-bearer and the will of God. No formal agreement on power rotation —Okowa Answering questions from newsmen on the presumed gentleman agreement by PDP leaders to rotate governorship position during his quarterly briefing, Wednesday, at Asaba, Governor Okowa stated categorically: “A gentleman agreement is an agreement that is not written and l want to believe that that is what it supposed to be.” “But whether there was any formal meeting in which a gentleman agreement was reached, there was no formal meeting where a gentleman agreement was reached and We expect all genuine members of our great party, PDP, to comply with the power rotation agreement that is the truth as at today,” he asserted. The governor obviously disappointed those who wanted him to emphasize clearly that he was going to handover to Urhobo as Ibori and others predicted in 2019. What DC-23 proponents would want do straightaway was to affirm the agreement, whether written or oral, and add that Urhobo is it in 2023. But the governor opted to be shrewder than supposed. During his own governorship primaries in 2015, when it was supposed to be the turn of Delta North, this was after he backed out from run-off primaries in 2006, seven or so years earlier, to enable his predecessor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, fly the party’s flag, aspirants from Delta Central, despite the gentleman agreement the senatorial district currently professes, slugged it out against him. From his reaction, Okowa did not say that there was no gentleman agreement, he merely pointed out that there was no approved position taken on the matter, which is to say that nobody should blackmail or intimidate him to do his or •Ibori •Okowa •Amori their bidding with such arrangement. Leaders‘ll do proper analysis Earlier, last Saturday, at the empowerment of constituents of Aniocha/ Oshimili Federal Constituency by their representative and Minority Leader of House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, in Asaba, the governor admonished politicians to place the collective interest of the people above self, irrespective of ambitions, adding: ”I can see that a lot has been on in our dear state, especially the scramble on who will replace Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa come 2023.” He made a point which some probably did not assimilate, which was: “I am not all-knowing, but at the appropriate time, leaders must be ready to sit down for us to do a proper analysis politically, before we take decisions so that we will not lead our people into darkness.” According to him: “Unfortunately, some are not even patient, they started their campaigns in the first three months of my second term in office. I want to charge our leaders and people to be cautious because politics is such that if you don’t read it rightly, you will directly throw your people into fire.” I’m not God, can’t decide my successor Besides his deputy, Barrister Kingsley Otuaro, an Ijaw, who many said has displayed absolute loyalty to the governor in almost six years, the longest serving lawmaker in the upper chamber, Senator James Manager, also Ijaw, are prospective governorship contestants in 2023. Apparently because of Okowa’s decision to keep his cards close to his chest until the time comes, some people are already saying that he planned to hand over to Ijaw in Delta South senatorial district. Again, responding to journalists, he said: ”On allegations of intention to hand over to an Ijaw man, it is only God Almighty that knows who will be governor after me. I cannot pretend to be God, I do not know who God is going to bring and I do not have the intention of playing the role of God.” ” You will hear a lot more things just as they said I want to handover to an Ijaw man, I do not think that I have the strength to play God, but the issue is when the politics starts, politics will be played, and God Almighty will take the decision on who will be Governor. ”But as I said, at some point in time as a party, because I can only speak for my party, that we will sit down to look at issues to find out what truly will be fair, what truly will be justiciable and what should equity really mean. On where the governorship is going, I think if you pray, God will reveal it to you,” he added. Power ambassadors disorganized Since Tuesday when the State Executive Council was dissolved, there have been topsecret meetings by DC-23 leaders, Ijaw politicians and groups across the state to critically study the governor and what he is up to. Some said he sacked the commissioners and other top politicians around him so that those reporting his activities to their godfathers would not have anything to report anymore or correctly read his mind. Presently, power negotiators in the state are confused on the governor’s body movement, but PDP leaders are all likely to end up at the dialogue table as projected by the governor to decide who could be backed to be the next governor. Before he handed over in 2015, former governor, Dr. Uduaghan, was faced with a situation where his commissioners and top advisers took sides with different governorship aspirants and worked against his interest. Governor Okowa has not disclosed his preferred candidate and does not want to make the mistake Uduaghan made in choosing a successor. A political analyst, Prof John Arhada, told Saturday Vanguard: “PDP should thank itself from having a master political strategist like Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Urhobo leaders were about making an overpriced mistake that would have cost them governorship of the state. The All Progressives Congress, APC, was already smiling knowing the direction DC-23 was going with its plan and the end result would have pitted the entire state against them because nobody wants to hear of that political dynasty in 2023.” “What the people across the three senatorial districts of the state are saying is that there is nothing wrong with continuing with the PDP power rotation formula, but the party should make a clean break from the old order, Deltans do not want plunderers of their collective patrimony and their stooges anymore, we want a governor that will industrialize the state, otherwise, the party will lose the state to APC in 2023,” he added. C M Y K
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