Herdsmen Overrun Farm Settlements, Occupy Homes, Schools In Enugu’s Eha-Amufu
A devastating path of destruction and displacement has been left withinside the wake of relentless assaults via way of means of assailants suspected to be herdsmen on farm settlements in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State, for years.
No fewer than forty four farm settlements, recognised as ‘Ndiagu’, were overrun, with citizens compelled to escape their houses and are trying to find refuge in neighbouring groups . The affected groups consist of Abor Ishala, Mgbuji, Agu-Amede, Eha-Agu, and Umuhu.
The trendy and maximum populated farm agreement to return back beneathneath assault via way of means of marauding herdsmen turned into Ndiagu Amofia village in Umuhu Eha-Amufu self sustaining network on February 28. Residents have been compelled to escape their houses and are trying to find refuge in neighbouring groups .
In Abor, no fewer than 9 farm settlements have been overrun via way of means of the militias, who sacked the citizens and took over their houses with their families.
The affected settlements in Abor are Ogomungo, Ngele-Akpankpa, Okwum, Agerie, Ezegwu-Abor, Ashinu, Ovokpo, Mgbede-Abor, and Ngele-Acho. In Umujoovu village, 4 farm settlements have been sacked: Mgbede, Edu, Nditsion, and Onuashinu.
In Agu-Amede self sustaining network , 9 farm settlements have been overrun and brought over via way of means of the assailants. The settlements are Okpokwu, Uzamuado, Oduba-uzame, Onuchukwu, Efuakpa, Ogeriaba, Okpurugwu, Iyiasa, and Ikpakpara.
In the Eha-Agu self sustaining network , 3 farm settlements have been sacked, with citizens absolutely displaced and denied get entry to to their houses and palm plantations. The settlements are Odenigbo, Ashinu, and Isu.
In the Mgbuji self sustaining network , 18 farm settlements have been sacked, with citizens looking for refuge withinside the Enugu town and with own circle of relatives family members in different secure groups . The network settlements are absolutely occupied via way of means of marauding herdsmen.
The network settlements are absolutely occupied via way of means of marauding herdsmen are – “Okpokwu, Okpurugwu, Obodomba, Uloumuorgirie, Ugwuoka, Ngele-Aguiyi, Ogbete-Obibi, Ogbete-Umulo, Agerie, Unuanu, Obodo-Ede, Ukwuakwa, Unomgbede, Iyiasa, Onu-Ashinu, Ubi, Ezegwu, Omulo.”
In Umuhu Eha-Amufu self sustaining network , the final farm agreement sacked is “Ndiagu Amofia”.
According to SaharaReporters’ investigation, the assaults at the groups , which percentage limitations with groups in Benue State, began out in 2002. However, the vicious assaults and land-grabbing intensified in 2020 at some stage in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Chief Obeagu Odoh, a kinsman of the Chairman of Isi-Uzu LGA, advised SaharaReporters that the citizens have been sacked from their houses and feature now no longer been resettled.
“Some are dwelling in Enugu, a few employed homes withinside the camp, even as a few are squatting with family members .
“All the farm settlements in our network , no one is going there. If you dare, it’s far both you’re killed or abducted for ransom otherwise you get away with injuries,” some other resident, Chigbo Okibe, advised SaharaReporters.
He discovered that December 2024 marked the primary time Christmas were celebrated in Eha-Ohala considering 2021.
“Getting to a 12 months now, 3 humans from Abor who went to reap their vegetation on the farm settlements have now no longer been found,” he revealed, including that the problem turned into directly said to the Enugu State Police Command. “Yet as we speak, no one has been has been held accountable. The herdsmen are presently occupying deserted houses , and the safety businesses aren’t doing some thing to go back the humans to their houses .”
Regarding authorities intervention, he said, “There’s none.” For our very own facet of Abor and Umujoovu, I actually have now no longer visible any authorities intervention. The interventions we’ve acquired to this point have been more often than not at some stage in the Mgbuji disaster whilst it turned into at its peak. At the give up of the day, the authorities got here and began out constructing roads main to a number of their settlements
“There was a time the government sited Army barracks in the same Mgbuji when they deployed soldiers to Ogbete Mgbuji, but unfortunately, the soldiers have been withdrawn. Again, from that location to Abor is very far away,” Okibe narrated.
According to him, there’s no presence of government in the Eha-Ohala autonomous community, which comprises – Abor and Umujoovu.
If you follow that vast portion of land, you will arrive in Benue State. So we only have a boundary with Benue State. I don’t know the reason why the Fulani people have refused to go. Instead of leaving that area, they invite more people to come,” he said.
Lamenting the development, a woman leader, Mrs Chinyere Odoebe, said that none of the affected communities knew what to do again.
She said, “These are the challenges we have been facing all this while because none of our communities know what to do again. We are not equipped with such weapons they’re carrying, so how can we combat people with AK-47 rifles? It is only the hunters and local vigilantes that are securing the community. What they have are Dane guns. And when the security agencies see you with Dane guns, you are accused of carrying weapons, but when Fulani herdsmen attack, you will not see them.”
Showing SaharaReporters some houses lying desolate that occupants and their family members had been killed, Mrs Odoebe lamented: “The security agents only surface to carry corpses after attacks.”
“The dangerous thing is that the Fulani people are planning to come and take over the entire Eha-Amufu especially – Agu-made, Eha-Ohala comprising Abor Ishala and Mgbuji autonomous communities, Eha-Agu and some parts of Umuhu autonomous communities,” she said, adding that the implications will be dire. “As I am talking to you now, Abor people are on the run, and Umujoovu have started running their own too; likewise, Mgbuji, the entire Eha-Amufu is gone.”
Unfortunately, she said, because of politics, some people go to the media to report that nothing is happening.
“But that is not the truth. It is not only because of fear. If you watched what happened in Nkalaha Community in Ebonyi State, which is our neighbouring community, that incident aggravated our people’s fear because they wouldn’t know when they would come,” she explained.
Mrs. Angela Ogenyi informed SaharaReporters that the death toll exceeded 180 before the recent killings. She highlighted the persistent danger, noting that individuals are still being killed or injured while working on their farms, even when it seems that peace has been restored.
She said, “Last time we went to the State CID and reported that two of our people were missing, and up till now, they have not returned. We have pictures of all these things, but in the end, some people will say that nothing is happening. That everywhere is calm.
“I don’t know whether they’re deceiving themselves or they’re deceiving the government so that government will not come and to help. Those who are supposed to be reporting what is going on are the ones saying that nothing is happening. Now, you did not place anything on the ground, then you are telling people to return.
“When they brought police to the community, the operatives refused to go to the places where the invaders have sacked the people from their homes in the settlements. The school in Ogbete where I schooled, which former Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi through Chijioke Edeoga reconstructed, these Fulani marauders still came and burned it.
“That school is where Mgbuji people from farm settlements, Abor people from farm settlements, and Umujoovu people from farm settlements come to school.
“Fulani herdsmen have sacked everybody in those places, yet they still pursued us to Ndiuno Eha-Amufu homes. Hunger is killing people. Before, it was easy; you would be in the town, and your parents were at home farming, and you would be sending them some money to support them, but now they are not doing anything, you have to cater for their needs – you send money for food and everything and the worst thing is that they don’t allow them to even stay in their place.
“Then where do they run to? Every time, they claim that their cows were killed, but when you cultivate crops, they will come and destroy everything. If you cultivate cassava, they will come, uproot and drop for their cows to feed on; the same thing happens if you cultivate yam.
“If it is rice you cultivate, that one is rice and salad for them. There is trouble. It is a serious issue on our side!”
Chibuzo Olinya, one of the affected residents in the farm settlements, revealed how herdsmen have systematically dismantled and occupied their area.
Olinya said, ” The Fulani herdsmen have either burned down all the houses in those areas or removed their roofing sheets. They stripped the roof off the Catholic Church in those settlements, as well as the roofs of the primary schools and most of the houses in the area.
“They are living in some of the houses that they didn’t destroy. So their strategy is to ensure that the person didn’t come back. Some of our people who gathered the courage to go there saw Fulani women already occupying their homes, and when they told them that the houses belonged to them, those women ran and alerted their men. In seconds, they surrounded those our people with AK-47 rifles when we thought that peace had returned.
“It is the Fulani herdsmen that are pursuing people; there’s no other thing. I don’t know whether it is a planned deal with the Benue people because I don’t know the reason for all these things because we don’t have boundaries with Fulani people; only the Benue people have boundaries.
“I don’t know the reason Fulani people will be coming to kill our people. When we were young, Fulani herdsmen came to graze in our place, but those ones were peaceful, and they didn’t destroy people’s things. If they met you where you were farming, they would ask for water, and if you had, you give them. But I don’t know where this crop of Fulani herders came from?”
Attempts by SaharaReporters to obtain a response from the Enugu State Police Command regarding the reported sacking of farm settlements in Eha-Amufu by marauding herdsmen were unsuccessful. The Command’s spokesperson, SP Daniel Ndukwe, neither answered calls nor responded to a text message seeking his comment.
Similarly, the state government remained silent on the incident, as efforts to reach Governor Peter Mbah were unsuccessful, with his media office declining to comment.
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