Hundreds of leaders, women and youths of Ezinano Community in Awka South local government area of Anambra state have escaped what would have passed for a genocide in the state.
This following siege on their community land by heavily armed men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the state police command.
The ugly incident occured on Friday in the disputed land between people of Ezinano community in Awka and Umuzuocha Community both in the same council area.
Findings revealed that if not the quick intervention of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Obono Nnaghe Itam by ordering that all the parties leave the scene immediately, there could have been possible bloodbath.
Our Correspondent gathered that the leaders, women and youths of Ezinano Community in Awka had stormed their ancestral land which the Umuzuocha Community is laying claim as their own. only to be confronted by several plain cloth SARS operatives who laid siege to the area.
Trouble was said to have started when the people of Ezinano Community arrived at their land on hearing that members of Umuzuocha Community have started erecting buildings indiscriminately on the disputed land.
The Umuzuocha people also started raising perimeter fences, erosion channels/gutter and other structures on the land without recourse to pending case in court but only to deploy police to the area in order to perfect their heinous crimes.
It was learnt that Ezinano people on arrival were ordered by the SARS Operatives to leave the land or be sent to their early graves, a development which prompted them to raise the alarm and urgently called on CP Obono Nnaghe Itam for their rescue and to wade into the matter.
The people, during the stalemate protested against police invasion on their land.
Mrs.Gloria Chiama, a farmer, called on the relevant authorities to call police to order as “police do not meddle in matters of land dispute between communities and individuals rather maintain law and order.”
Recall that elders and leaders of the Ezinano Community 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 pf the Police Force Headquarters Abuja and Commissioner of Police, Anambra State against a senior police officer over alleged meddlesomeness in the same land.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga when contacted on phone urged the leaders and people of Ezinano Community to come forward with their 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.”
