By Juliana Nwachukwu
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Anambra State Branch, has appealed to the people of Umuoba Anam and Aguleri in Anambra East Local Government Area to sheathe their swords and embrace peace, dialogue and alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms in resolving their longstanding land dispute.
The appeal was contained in a press statement issued on October 7, and jointly signed by the CLO Chairman, Evang. Comrade Vincent Ezekwueme, AMBP-UN; Secretary, Comrade Chidi Mbah; and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Damian Ogudike.
The human rights organisation stressed that communal conflicts produce no meaningful winners, noting that dialogue, roundtable discussions and other peaceful mechanisms remained effective means of resolving disputes between communities.
According to the CLO, the people of both communities are brothers and should not allow a land dispute to degenerate into further bloodshed. It urged community leaders to counsel their subjects to remain law-abiding, avoid taking the law into their own hands and report suspicious movements to security agencies.
The organisation commiserated with families who lost loved ones in the recent clash, praying for the repose of the deceased and wishing those injured a speedy recovery.
CLO commended Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, for his prompt intervention and reported plans to engage strategic stakeholders from both communities towards finding a lasting solution to the crisis.
It also praised the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Command, CP Nnannah Oji Ama, for what it described as proactive measures and his on-the-spot assessment of the troubled areas, saying the intervention had helped restore normalcy and boost confidence among residents and security personnel.
However, the organisation called on Governor Soludo and the commissioner of police to urgently constitute a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the clash, identify those responsible for instigating the crisis and ensure that anyone found culpable faces the full weight of the law.
The CLO warned that Anambra had experienced enough communal crises and should not allow the Umuoba Anam–Aguleri dispute to continue along the path of violence, particularly between communities it described as brotherly.
Ezekwueme urged the people to “think peace, wish peace, love peace, act peace and live peacefully,” stressing that peaceful coexistence remained essential to achieving a livable, peaceful and prosperous Anambra State.
Juliana Nwachukwu is of the Ministry of Information and Value Reformation, Anambra State
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