Crisis: ‘we can’t accept Bishop Okoro’s Peace Panel report – Ezza-Effium vows

The people of Ezza-Effium, Ohaukwu local government area of Ebonyi State have rejected the peace pact document emanating from Retired Bishop Okoro’s Peace Panel report and recommendations on the three year old war in Effium community that has claimed many lives with properties worth billions of naira destroyed.

The people said they rejected the peace pact document because it infringed on their fundamental human rights.

Part of the peace pact document reads “that Ezza Effium people will be given a new settlement with the status of Semi autonomous, Traditional ruler but village head only.

“That Ezza Effium has no right to contest for the traditional stool which according to them is for the So called LandLord Uffiom.

“That Ezza Effium people has no right to royalty from the mineral deposits in Effium community which the peace pact document said it is the right of the so called LandLords Uffiom, even the ones found in Ezza Effium lands.

The people of Effium and Ezza-Effium in the local government have been at war since 21st January, 2021.

The war started from a leadership tussle between two factions of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in a motor park in the community and took a dangerous dimension with many killings and wanton destruction of properties.

Efforts were made by the past administration in the state and federal government to end the war but to no avail.

Governor Francis Nwifuru set up a peace panel headed by a retired Catholic Bishop in the state, Rev Michael Okoro which issued a white paper after the warring communities signed peace pact.

But the people of Effium rejected the white paper and peace pact, describing it as a recipe for another apartheid regime in the 21st century.

The people under the umbrella of Ezza-Effium Consultative Assembly said some of their stakeholders were compelled to sign the peace pact against their free will.

This was contained in a statement signed by Chief Aligwe Matthias Chukwuma, Chairman of the Assembly and Secretary, Dr. Bernard Orichi and made available to newsmen in Abakaliki the state capital.

They argued that the white paper was against the 1999 constitution of the federal republic which gave every Nigerian right to live anywhere in the country and wondered why they were described by the white paper as tenants in Effium community.

The people also described as unacceptable, the aspect of the white paper that barred them from producing a traditional ruler of Effium community when they have been doing that for long.

“The recommendations of Retired Bishop Okoro’s Peace Panel and its implementation could better be described as apartheid in the words of the former Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), in an event in Abuja on Thursday, August 26, 2023.

“The report which erroneously posited Ezza-Effium people, who have lived in their God given community since time immemorial, as tenants, is a malicious and misleading report orchestrated by supposed Men of God. What an unprofessional and disreputable contradiction?

“It is rather ridiculous that we are now regarded as tenants by the purported Peace Pact document, whereas the Uffioms, who are non-Igbo speaking, let alone of Ebonyi State origin, are now described as “landlord” by the same Peace Pact document. This is wrong, in fact and law, and a calculated, organized decimation and diminution of Ezza-Effium personality in particular, and Ezza people in general. We are simply accommodative and in keeping with the provisions of 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) which gave all of us equal rights to citizenship.

“We Ezza-Effium people, therefore, reject, in its totality, any Peace Pact or White Paper that tends to deprive us of any of our constitutional rights and privileges in Effium Community, inclusive of the rights over our entitlements, freedoms, lives and properties.

” For emphasis, ‘the right to the traditional stool of Effium Community was first enjoyed by Ezza-Effium people even in the colonial era. The British Colonial Government appointed an Ezza-Effium man, Chief Ekuma Omaka (now late), as the first traditional ruler of Effium Community with his Certificate of Recognition, dated 1st September, 1960, and signed by Okon Udo Affia, Minister of State (Chieftaincies and Establishments).

“The said Chief Ekuma Omaka was later succeeded by Chief Leonard Agena (now late), an Uffiom man, as the second traditional ruler, on ground of our common understanding of rotational basis between the two tribes of Ezza-Effium and Uffiom. Or does the Retired Bishop Okoro-led Peace Panel claim ignorance of this fact?”, the stated.

The Ezza-Effium people noted that they want permanent peace in Effium community and not graveyard peace and called on the state government to order ceasefire and direct all residents of Effium community to return to their homes while issues relating to revenue in the motor park, market places and other things incidental thereto, should be rightly addressed using extant laws.

They urged Governor Nwifuru to revisit the report of Retired Bishop Okoro-led Peace Panel and the Peace Pact document, and any other document relevant thereto, for a more informed and constitutional measures to guarantee restoration of enduring peace to Effium community.