Says Ibilla elites instigating crisis
By Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
Members of the Oju Community in the Oju Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State have accused the elites of their Ibilla neighbours for being behind the lingering bloody crisis between the two communities.
The community members stated this in a statement signed by the National President of the Oju Development Association, (ODA), Mr Okwori Ojajah, the Secretary-General, Donald Ode and the National President of the Youth Wing, Adole Ajiga, and made available to newsmen in Makurdi.
According to them, the recent bloody conflict between the two sister communities that led to the death of many and the destruction of properties was caused by the overzealous quest by their Ibilla brothers to grab land belonging to the Oju people.
They also alleged that besides the wealthy Ibilla elites instigating the conflict, the crisis is also being fueled by their clandestine moves to change the name of the LGA from Oju to Anyuwogbu to suit their selfish desires.
The leaders of Oju who were responding to an earlier press statement by the Ibilla community who claimed that the Oju people were on a mission to annihilate them, said the Ibilla people were the aggressors but are now mischievously feigning the victims
They insisted that Ibilla people were using their political and financial clout to oppress their less endowed neighbours, Oju, but turned around in a media statement to mislead the authorities on the root cause of the protracted crisis.
“We stand by our position on the remote and immediate causes of the June 11, 2023 incident between Oju and Ibilla communities; that Ibilla clan were the aggressors and not the victims as they are portraying themselves to the authorities and the world.
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“Igede people and the general public are very much aware of the fact that being the birthplace and headquarters of the Catholic Church in Igede land, the Oju clan and its people are so passionate about the Catholic Church that it is unimaginable for them to launch an attack on their neighbours on a day set aside for an occasion as solemn as the celebration of the Priestly First Mass by their newly ordained Reverend Father-son.
Igede people who are familiar with the pattern of settlement in Oju LGA headquarters also know that Oju youths wouldn’t and couldn’t have set up roadblocks at Barracks to stop their own market men and women from returning home from Ihiejwo market in the evening of June 10, and to stop worshippers and guests from attending their own son’s Priestly First Mass in the morning of June 11.
“Moreso, security personnel and community leaders who attempted to clear the roadblocks to know very well that those who mounted them were Ibilla youths. It is, therefore, illogical for people to believe the false narrative that the Oju Community attacked the Ibilla Community after the groundbreaking of their son’s university was put off to pave the way for the resolution of all the grey areas.
“The allegation that “Oju clan has a large cache of weapons of mass destruction with funding from their prominent sons and daughters as well as their supporters to annihilate the Ibilla clan, take over our land and rename every Ibilla village as Oju,” is the direct reversal of the truth. The allegation was intended to whip up public sentiment against the Oju clan and misdirect the attention of the authorities and security agencies away from their guilt.
The persistent tension and occasional communal clashes in the Oju-Ibilla-Ukpa axis of Oju LGA are the direct fallouts of the Ibilla clan’s plots and schemes, using their political clout and financial resources to execute their dubious agenda.
“We maintain that the Oju clan did not pull the first trigger in the June 11 conflict and is prepared to attest to this fact in accordance with the Igede tradition. We suffered more losses than the Ibilla clan contrary to what the latter conveyed.
“The smuggling of the name of Anyuwogbu into the signpost of the proposed permanent site of the University of Applied Science and Technology is just the latest in the series of such schemes.
“Oju clan was never and will never be opposed to the siting of the proposed university on its land. What we oppose is the dishonest, fraudulent and clandestine replacement of the original name of “Oga-Oluwa,” which was agreed by the three catchment communities of Oju, Ibilla and Ainu with that of “Anyuwogbu-Ibilla,” by the proprietor of the proposed institution.
“We therefore call on the appropriate authorities in the state and Igede land to protect the Oju clan from the Ibilla clan’s overzealous pursuit of its land grabbing for the Anyuwogbu agenda which is the root cause of all the crisis in Oju LGA in recent years.”
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