Izzo and Amaeze, two communities that were created from Ezillo for the people of Ezza in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State after years of communal war between the people of Ezillo/Ezza Ezillo are facing many challenges. Their creation was meant to achieve a lasting peace after several years of incessant communal clashes.

The state government granted the Ezza people in Ezillo autonomy in 2017 as part of measures to end the war between them and their old hosts, Ezillo.

But almost five years after the protracted war, Izzo remains a shadow of itself despite the 70 housing units being constructed for the community by the state government.

Izzo, formerly known as Ezza-Ezillo, denoting the names of the now estranged neighbours – was the theatre of one of Nigeria’s bloodiest communal wars, fuelled by a long history of rivalry and distrust.

Lying 40 kilometres from the state capital, Abakaliki, the community could be said to have ceased to exist in 2008 after then Governor Martin Elechi ordered the evacuation of Ezza people from areas claimed by their Ezillo neighbours.

Houses, schools, churches, markets, hospitals and other social infrastructure were destroyed. Most of the structures are still in ruins, subjecting the people to untold hardship.

At the climax of the war in 2010, no fewer than 95 persons were killed in the community. Two mass graves in the area remain a sad memory of the bloody clashes.

How Ezza, Ezillo became neighbours

Historically, the relationship between the two communities started on a friendly note in the colonial times in the 1930s when the Ezillos invited the Ezzas to assist them in fighting the Ngbo, their neighbours whom they accused of encroaching on their land.

The people of Ezza, who at the time were with their kit and kin in the current Ezza North and Ezza South Local Government areas of the state, were known warriors.

After the war, the Ezzas got a parcel of land in the Egu Echara area of Ezillo community as their reward for their support in successfully battling the Ngbo. The location also made them a buffer between the Ngbo and Ezillo, to save their allies from future invasions.

The two groups lived together happily for years and intermarried before their relationship turned sour after the Ezzas began to spread to other parts of Ezillo, acquiring land far beyond the area allocated to them. The Ezillos accused the Ezzas of dominating them, setting the stage for a devastating conflict.

In 1959, the Ezillos dragged the Ezzas to the Abakaliki Colonial Customary Court, asking them to move back to Egu Echara. The court ruled in favour of Ezillo but the Ezzas did not obey the judgment. They appealed the case before a colonial District Officer, but the District Officer struck out their appeal, asking them to obey the extant judgment.

In May 10, 2008, a dispute between Sunday Idenyi, an Ezillo indigene, and Ezza youths over the erection of a telephone booth at the Ishimkpuma market ignited a carnage in which many people were killed.

The then Governor, Martin Elechi set up a peace committee headed by one Chibueze Agbo. But the violence continued, despite the efforts of the committee and government agencies.

On October 2, 2008, Elechi, in a live broadcast, ordered the Ezzas to leave Ezillo land and relocate to Egu Echara, the 52 hectares of land initially allocated to them by their hosts around 1930. He then added 253.15 hectares of land to the old settlement of the Ezzas.

But the Ezzas kicked against their relocation, leading to the governor sending in soldiers to enforce their evacuation. They dragged Elechi to court but the case languished at the Ebonyi State High Court until the end of his tenure.

“There is currently no virgin land known and called Egu Echara as fellow Nigerians are made to believe,” the Ezzas claimed in a petition addressed to David Mark, Nigeria’s Senate President at the time.

“There is no decision or order of a court of competent jurisdiction that the Ezzas should be relocated or are to be displaced from their present abodes and abandon their cultural heritage, markets, schools, and or farmlands for the Ezillos”, the Ezzas declared.

In 2015, David Umahi, who took over from Elechi as the state governor, moved to find an end to the deadly communal war immediately after his election.

In 2016, Umahi declared every September 5 as a peace day to mark the end of the war in Ezillo. In 2017, he granted the Ezzas the status of an autonomous community, expanding their territory to 500 hectares. Although Ezillo youths protested granting an autonomous community to the Ezzas, the state House of Assembly enacted the Peace Pact Law that sought an end to the crisis.

This law stipulates the creation of Amaeze-Ezillo and Izzo Autonomous communities in Ishielu council area of the state and should be deemed to have commenced on February 8, the day it was passed into law.

The current governor of the state, Francis Nwifuru was the Speaker of the state House of Assembly when the law was passed. But the survivors of the 2011 massacre in Ezillo who were afraid of the law, call it “the fear of the unknown.” Many of them said they cannot go to their farms because “we may just be attacked.”

Their fear was laid to rest when Nwifuru started building 70 housing units for them and 70 housing units for their Izzo neighbours to resettle them.

The governor brought all those who were in exile as a result of the war back to the two newly created autonomous communities and immediately commenced the housing units which are nearing completion.

Lack of roads, electricity, water, other amenities threaten survivors

Nweke John Shedrack, one of the survivors of the war, told Saturday Sun that life has been so difficult for the people living in the communities since they returned from exile in 2023.

“The war started on 10th May, 2008 and we stayed in exile till 2023. Immediately after the general election of 2023, the governor said these people have been in exile for many years and it is not good. He immediately brought us back.

“The former governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi brought security people from Abuja and they took over the whole place. He declared this place a buffer zone and our people ran out of the communities.

“So, it was Governor Francis Nwifuru who said no, it is not good for the government to allow people to be in exile. That’s why he approved the housing project for us and the Amaeze community to enable us to come back to the community.

“Everybody was affected in the war. Even when we left the community, all the buildings in our community were destroyed. We came back and saw all the buildings destroyed. It was Governor Francis Nwifuru who made people start returning to the community from different locations,” he said.

He commended the governor for the housing units but said the 70 units of three-bedroom bungalows will not be enough for the over 4,000 clans of Umuezeoka and Umuezekoha in the community who were affected by the war.

He therefore appealed to the governor to approve the construction of more housing units in the community to accommodate more victims of the crisis.

He lamented the hardship the community has been facing after returning from exile as a result of the war and recommended provision of amenities to tackle the hardship.

“Survival is very difficult here. If you look at the community, you can see there is no market, there is no school, no hospital here. We depend on menial jobs to earn a living. Life is very difficult for us here. We are only surviving by the grace of God.

“Everything is on the high side and we cannot run away from the community because of hardship and that’s why we are engaging in menial jobs and farming for survival.

“There is no security threat since we came back to the community. We have been living in harmony with our Amaeze brothers. There is absolute peace now and we are even playing politics together. During last year’s local government election, I was the agent of APC in Ezillo ward 1. There is absolute peace now,” he stated.

For Joseph Nwanga, the return of peace to the community was the beginning of better things to come.

He said with peace in the community, every other thing, including social amenities, will take shape. He commended Governor Nwifuru for bringing them back to the community after years in exile.

“I am very happy for the return of peace to our place. We are all excited and we are living in peace with our neighbours. We thank Governor Francis Nwifuru for the housing project. But we need light, water, roads, schools, markets and other amenities. I am among the victims and all my means of livelihood were destroyed including houses.

“We actually have a lot of problems here. As you can see, our roads are not good. You can’t access this community easily because of bad roads and you know roads are very essential in every community.

“We don’t also have schools, all our schools were destroyed during the war and most of our children are out of school. Those that are attending schools are doing so in our neighbouring Ntezi and Ngbo communities in Ishielu and Ohaukwu local governments and these schools are very far from our own community.

“The schools are four kilometres away from our community and parents are finding it very difficult to take their children to those schools everyday because of the distance and the cost of taking their children to those schools.

“There is no single market in this community. If you harvest your crops to sell and make money to earn a living, there is no market to sell the crops and we are predominantly farmers. In fact, we survive through agriculture. We need a market urgently.

“We also need a hospital in our community. If anyone is sick, there is no hospital to take the person to for medical treatment. We need so many things but we are believing in God that all these things will be fixed.

“On our part as a community, we are working very hard to develop it. As you can see, our people are building houses after our return to the community apart from the housing unit the government is building for us,” he said.

A nursing mother in the area, Mrs. Osita Nwali Perpetual also lamented the condition of the community and called for provision of social amenities to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.

She pointed out that hospitals, roads, electricity and water are the major problems the community is facing.

“I gave birth to my three-week-old daughter in a health centre far away from our community because we don’t have any health facility here and I suffered before getting to the hospital where I gave birth.

“So, we need a health centre here. We also need electricity for our small businesses. Some of us are into soft drinks business and it requires electricity to cool our goods. Some are into other businesses that need electricity.

“The conditions of our internal roads are nothing to write home about. You were able to access the community because we are now In the dry season. If you came here during the rainy season, you can’t enter this place. The roadS are terribly bad and we need them fixed to make our community accessible and ensure we evacuate our agricultural products because we are farmers and we depend on farming for survival.

“We want a traditional ruler and we have been talking about it. The way the government is going about it, we don’t like it. Government is trying in the housing project but they are not handling the issue of traditional rulers very well,” she lamented.

Traditional stool raises dust

Meanwhile, the community, last week, elected one Monday Ogbule as its traditional ruler.

There was a problem during the event which took place within the housing unit being constructed by Governor Nwifuru for survivors of the war.

A faction of the community alleged that some government officials were financially induced to impose someone as their traditional ruler.

Trouble started when a government official who was suspected to be acting under the influence of gratification disqualified one of the candidates for the position on the ground that the candidate did not attend a security screening for the position.

Following the disqualification of the candidate, some members of the community embarked on protest and hauled stones and pebbles on some of the government officials that came to conduct the election.

President of the town union, Comrade Ikechukwu Ojeogu, condemned the development and insisted that qualified candidates must be allowed to contest the election to enable the people to freely select their traditional ruler.

He described the actions of the government officials as a betrayal of the community’s trust.

Nworie Emeka, Secretary-General of Umuigboke Kindred, alleged that some of the government officials had repeatedly received large sums from the community during previous attempts to hold the election.

“For the three consecutive times the election was scheduled, the community, through the executive, released N20 million each time to the committee led by the government officials,” he claimed, adding that the people were later shocked to discover alleged secret financial dealings involving a contestant.

One of the contestants, Onyema Enwuru, said he was shocked at the sudden changes.

“Today was meant for the election. I completed all required forms, but suddenly I was informed that a government official had ‘performed everything’—meaning decisions had already been made without due process,” he said.

Former town union president of the community, Chief James Enwuru, described the disqualifications of some of the contestants as disappointing and destabilizing.

“We expected a peaceful election among the three credible candidates including Onyema Francis Enwuru, Orugbala Sunday Echeh, and Monday Joseph Ogbule.

“Instead, the government delegation disenfranchised women and credible candidates,” he said.

Enwuru urged Governor Nwifuru to intervene, expressing concern that the community feels neglected despite earlier appeals since January.

Ogbule in his acceptance speech, urged his fellow contestants to join hands with him for peace and development of the community.

He said the community was facing a lot of challenges which required collective efforts to solve. He commended members of the community for the confidence reposed in him. (The Sun)