•elated as EEDC moves to restore power to Ohafia, Arochukwu 5 years after blackout
Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on FCT Judiciary, Hon. Ibe Osonwa on Friday called for a peaceful resolution of the communal clashes between youths of the Isu community in Abia State and Ukwa community in Cross River State.
Osonwa who represents Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency of Abia State gave the charge during a media chat with parliamentary correspondents in Abuja, condemned in strong terms the recent invasion of the border community in Abia State, which led to the killing of Mrs Alade Kalu Elem as well as 90-year-old woman who was shot by invaders.
He said: “On the 10th and 11th of May, 2024, the community of ISU was unexpectedly attacked by the community of Ukwa in Cross River State. A good number of people were injured one of them being a 90-year-old woman was shot in the leg but much tragically was a woman that was killed on her way to the farm.
“It’s painful, it’s painful because I could almost have seen this coming from the past. On the 25th of October, 2023 I raised a motion in the House, asking that this issue of insecurity in Isu should be looked into. I was deliberate that the motion was co-sponsored by the honourable member of the community in Cross River State. I asked for a military barrier between the two communities but I was told that we have to use the Police and I said we are good because constitutionally, it’s Police’s responsibility.
“But also understanding the locality and the intricacies of that area, unfortunately, everything I said then is happening now! My problem is that there’s also a likelihood of reprisal,” he warned.
While stressing the urgent need for the intervention of relevant authorities at Federal and State levels to forestall the breakdown of law and order in the affected areas.
Osonwa said, “This tit-for-tat is unnecessary and we need to find a way to resolve it. The only way I can it is to put forward an operating base aimed at the location so that we can separate the two communities for now while the Nigerian Border Commission do its duty of a standing deceleration between the two communities.”
When asked about the root cause of the communal clashes, Osonwa noted that “unfortunate as it would appear, it is money that is the root. As we say, money is the root of all evil, and the root of this particular issue is money. The area has been found to have a very good deposit of limestone that spans hundreds of kilometres and that is the issue right there.
“The whole land area is spotted with limestone, has crystallized stone that is also perfect for manufacturing of glass. So, I think it is the greenland monster that is taking over.”
He acknowledged that a number of activities have been initiated by Governments during the clashes, but rather than placing the blame on any of the parties, Hon. Osonwa underscored the need to focus on solving the problem.
“Because you know how we are now, if I start talking about what the other government did or did not do in the period that they were there, and the crisis always happened it would be politicization and I don’t want it to make it to look at it as a political thing.
“We are in a new government, a new party is in charge, mandate for the people is to provide security and prosperity.
“And this how we are going to do it, we are going to find a way to stop these clashes.”
He maintained that the “people of Cross River are very close to us, we are inter-married, we share tradition, we follow the same clanian discussion, we speak certain words in the same dialect, so we are one and the same. It’s unfortunate that we have allowed money to come between us.
“What I want is for us to go back to our brotherly positioning, rather than killing each other. There is enough blood that has been split over this boundary issue, enough is enough,” he urged.
Speaking on the House resolution on the five-year power outage in Ohafia/Arochukwu Federal Constituency, Hon. Osonwa expressed delight over the ongoing efforts aimed at restoring electricity across the communities by Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) following the prompt intervention of the House Committee on Public Petitions.
He said: “The Committee (on Public Petitions) met three weeks ago and part of the resolution was to provide the community with power, but most importantly we will review the N2.1 billion bill that was imposed on the community.
“What we were told was to have a meeting where we are going to look at the numbers. Good enough that I’m also an Accountant. We had that meeting on Wednesday the 15th of May where we looked at the initial numbers, summarised the numbers of bills that were provided for us.
“We have agreed that the raw data will still be provided to us as a community, we will go back and analyze it, and we will come back with our own conclusions as to what the number should be based on the power that was actually consumed not just based on the bill that was given. A particular community in my Local Government, Abiriba and the other community – Nkporo their light should be energized by now bearing in mind that their poll has now been fixed.
“Now we are also told is that in the next couple of weeks, out of the 40 communities, 9 other Communities will be powered because other ones are facing the issue of vandalisation of transformation which they are working hard to fix.
“We are getting somewhere, getting the provision of the people with power and we are also getting somewhere solving the issue of ridiculous bill.
“Like I said earlier in my last discussion with the Press, it is impossible for you to charge people for electricity for five five-year period that they have not received any power at all. It’s criminal. It’s actually a fraud.
“So, I want to believe that we are going in the good direction now, we are all in synergy for peace. Once we can solve the power issue, then we can also concentrate on more important issues with the state of security in the area.”
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