▪️By Jonas Asadu
It is no news that Eha- Amufu, an agrarian and commercial community in Isi Uzo local Government of Enugu State have been under repeated and bloody attacks from outside invaders commonly suspected to be herdsmen. It started from the farm settlements where the people attended their crops. The invaders attack, destroy crops, rape women and men, maim, kill and leave the people frozen with fear; the most common result being that they begin to abandon their farms and now homes.
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The attacks follow a similar pattern with the massacre of April 23, 2016 in Uzo-Uwani where 40 people were gruesomely killed and dismembered by men of the Fulani militia, the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the global terror index. It is the same imprint of cruelty and barbarity. Perplexity lingers as to the audacity of the attacks and the disconcerting fact the attackers are completely unafraid of law enforcement. They had written attacked villages of Ekwuru, Nimbo-Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ebor, Enugu-Nimbo, Umuome and Ugwuachara in Uzo-Uwani, pre-informing them of a looming attack. The leaders of these villages promptly reported the threat to law enforcement and thought that the coast was clear. The attack happened nevertheless with the invaders having the luxury of time to execute the attack and shuffle out without as much as any disturbance. A situation of this nature leads irresistibly to a disturbing conclusion: there are people pulling the strings for these attackers from top places. This makes the situation especially difficult to manage as we can see from the current humanitarian crisis rocking Eha- Amufu.
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There has been spate of attacks in Eha-Amufu. Each attack left a handful of people killed and many permanently disabled. It is important to point out that before the more known 21 November attack, over 15 attacks had been recorded. The Ohuolu Mgbede, Aguamede, Mgbuji and Ebo communities haven been the principal targets but the menace keeps spreading to neighboring villages and communities. In the November attack, over 23 people were killed and 90 injured. That was the beginning of the humanitarian crisis in Eha -Amufu which is now full-blown . The people are now fleeing their villages in droves, becoming exiles in neighboring towns and communities. Even more worrisome is the seeming helplessness of the government. Outside a well written press statement condemning each attack, the state government has been incapable of preventing the next one. The people of Eha-Amufu have therefore lost confidence in the capacity of government at every level to protect their lives and property.
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The people are helping themselves by deserting these menaced villages. Nobody is now brave enough to visit the farms where the Fulani are a lingering and deterring presence. The markets, once busy and bustling with commercial activities, are now ghost towns, looking like what you would have after a major guerrilla war. The schools are shut down entirely, including the famous Federal College Of Education which had in the past trained millions of teachers. The clergy, afraid of abduction, have also closed their churches and fled. The whole place is now a ghost town with little human presence. The very few who manage to stay back only come out to steal glances and at the approach of a vehicle or strange human presence, scatter to safety. Bad people are cashing in on the crisis to break into people’s shops and homes in the night in search of goods and money; petty stealing being mostly actuated by acute hunger and the instinct of survival. Again, whhat is happening there now is a full-fleged humanitarian crisis. Looking at the desperate scampering for food and drinks and money among the troubled people rural-dwellers, Congo does not ring as exaggeration.
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Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State who hails from Isi Uzo Local Government have continued to intervene in the crisis. His interventions however yielded only minimal results as he does not command the full apparatus of state power. On the 12th of December, 2022, Edeoga was again on a tour of these displaced communities. In the company of friends and associates, he carried loads of cooked food and other relief materials. His train stopped at Mgbuji where a crowd quickly collected on hearing that the visitor was Okoeme, as they clamorously called him. Edeoga addressed the crowd and counseled them against fleeing their villages. “We fled the farms. Now we are fleeing the towns. This cannot continue,” he thundered courageously. They were apparently electrified and buoyed by his message of courage and hope.
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Chief Edeoga went along with men of the Nigerian Army, stationed in the town. There has been miscommunication which is making it impossible for the villagers to trust and work with law enforcement personnel. The invaders whom many suspect to be a mixture of bandits from the Igala nation and Fulani vagrants had come often dressed in military camouflage. The result is that the villagers can’t trust anything in miliary uniform. They would instantly flee at the sight of a solider. The soldier manning the army unit in the community happens to be an Igbo man from Imo state. Chief Edeoga made him address and reassure the villagers at every turn. He encouraged them to ask their brethren who are now refugees in other towns to return. His speechmaking went hand in hand with the distribution of food and other relief items.
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That is a model for effective leadership in a trying time like this. The crowd shouted that Okoeme have never shirked his roles of a guardian and leader for the people of Isi Uzo, a local government he led as a very young man and have come to love. He stopped at Abor and spoke to those who came out and distributed food. He again remined them that the only thing they should fear is fear itself. Their ancestors did not hand them the land by fleeing in the presence of every threat. They must stay united, reopen their businesses and encourage their fleeing brothers to return. He again distributed food, drinks and relief materials and made the miliary man address the people. He stopped at Umuijiove, took stock of the calamity in that part and spoke with even greater fervor . As this was happening, as one watched the animation on the faces of the people and how willingly they echoed each instruction from Edeoga, one kept wondering if we would have this crisis in the first place if we have a leadership which the people could trust and which endures l sleepless nights when the people are troubled.
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Edeoga stopped over at partially deserted market places and urged hope. People trooped out and drank his message of hope. His mastery of the Eha-Amufu crowd is the stuff of a spell. But it is not. Kindness and care disarm. They endear. For a man who have spent decades in public life caring for his people and never disappointing them on any occasion, it is not surprising that they should trust him so unquestioningly. How I wish that the government could care as much and command as much confidence.
Mr. Jonas Asadu Writes from Enugu
