ENUGU—TENSION and protest, yesterday, greeted
the arrival and settlement of over 200 herdsmen and their cows at Agu Obodo,
Obeagwu Ozalla in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The protesting community members said they were
overwhelmed by over five trucks that off-loaded the herdsmen, their families
and cows in the community and is asking the herdsmen to leave their land within
three days as their people can no longer go to their farms. President-General
of Ozalla Development Union, ODU, Chief Afam Ani, who led the protesting women,
youths and traditional rulers yesterday, said the herdsmen’s arrival, weekend,
caused considerable anxiety and panic in the town, with his people living
nearest to farm settlements abandoning their farms and dwellings and taking
refuge in other parts of the town. Ani narrated to newsmen that the herdsmen
claimed they were evicted from their previous settlements at Maryland in Enugu
South Local Government Area and decided to resettle in Ozalla. He said they had
informed security agencies, the local and state governments to help them evict the
herdsmen, citing an ugly experience the community had with the herdsmen in
2012, when they attacked, raped and destroyed properties in the community. The
President-General disclosed that the herdsmen agreed to vacate the community
within three days, but that he is pleading with the security agencies to help
enforce the agreement. A traditional ruler of one of the autonomous communities
in Ozalla, Igwe C. O. Okafor, described the development as embarrassing, adding
that they were not consulted by either the herdsmen or by any proxy before the
invasion.
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