Delight Chinedum
Scores of leaders, women and youths of Ezinano Community in Awka South local government area of Anambra state reportedly escaped death over disputed land in the area.
The land tussle was between people of the community and Umuzuocha Community, both in the same council area.
Armed men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the state police command were said to have laid siege on the area possibly to avert any form of breakdown of law and order.
Trouble started when the Ezinano indigenes stormed their ancestral land which the Umuzuocha Community allegedly claimed following information that Umuzuocha indigenes had commenced indiscriminate citing of buildings on the disputed land.
The Umuzuocha indigenes were said to have started raising perimeter fences, erosion channels/gutter and other structures on the land without recourse to pending case in court.
Our correspondent gathered that Ezinano people on arrival were ordered by the security operatives to leave the land or regret their actions, a development that prompted their raising alarm, calling on CP Obono Nnaghe Itam to come to their rescue and wade into the matter.
It was also learnt that if not for quick intervention of the CP who ordered all parties involved to immediately vacate the scene, the story would have been different.
The Ezinano indigenes, during the stalemate, had protested police invasion on their land.
Reacting, Police spokesperson, Tochukwu Ikenga urged leaders and people of Ezinano community to come forward with their complaints to the police in the state.
“You know the truth, you and I have been in this Anambra for many years. If the Ezinano people have any issue, they have the numbers of the Commissioner of Police and they have my own number; they can come to the command and lay their complaints,” he said.
Elders and leaders of the Ezinano Community had earlier written a petition dated September 11th 2024 to the Chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), copied to the Presidency, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Complaint Response Unit of Police Force Headquarters Abuja and Anambra State Commissioner of Police against a senior police officer over alleged meddlesomeness in the same land.