SPECIAL REPORT: Untold story of Ebonyi community sacked by conflict of ancient roots

The Ebonyi State Government granted the Ezza people in Ishielu Local Government Area the status of an ‘autonomous community’ in 2017 as part of measures to end a protracted bloody conflict between them and their old hosts, the Ezillo.

But almost five years after, Izzo, in Ishielu, remains a ghost community with the people displaced to other communities, a situation portending the return of violence.

When a PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited Izzo in March, shallow graves dot the landscape, monuments to the killings that sacked the community.

Although rarely reported, Izzo, formerly known as the Ezza-Ezillo – denoting the names of the now estranged neighbours – was the theatre of one of Nigeria’s bloodiest communal conflicts, fueled by a long history of ethnic rivalry and distrust.

Lying 40 kilometres from the state capital, Abakaliki, the community ‘died’ in 2008 after then-Governor Martins Elechi ordered the evacuation of Ezza people from areas claimed by their Ezillo neighbours.

Accompanied by some members of the local militia fighting the ‘war’, PREMIUM TIMES gained rare access to the ghost Izzo community and found its schools, churches, markets places and houses outgrown by trees.

Along a road lies a mass grave of about 95 persons killed during an attack in 2010, survivors told PREMIUM TIMES. A few kilometres away is another mass grave in which an unknown number of victims of the massacre the locals call ‘unprecedented’ were buried.

A peep into a compound revealed the grave of the entire family of Nwapa Owozo. They were hacked to death in their two-storey building, now in ruins. In the next compound, the reporter saw the decaying bones of a boy, his mother and his father.

“We buried so many people that we started burying more than two persons in one grave,” Amando Wnaleoguchi, a member of the militia, said. Mr Wnaleoguchi said the people of Ezillo want to exterminate his people, the Ezza.

A conflict steeped in history

Ironically, the relationship between the two Igbo sub-ethnic groups started on a friendly note in colonial times in the 1930s when the Ezillos invited the Ezzas to assist them in fighting the Ngbo, their neighbours whom they accused of encroaching on their land. Ezza people, who at the time were with their kit and kin in the current Ezza North and Ezza South local government areas of the state, were famous warriors.

According to historical records reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES at the National Archive, after the war, the Ezzas got a parcel of land in Egu Echara area of Ezillo community as their reward for their support in successfully battling the Ngbo. The location also made them a buffer between the Ngbo and Ezillo, to save their allies from future invasions.

The two groups lived together happily for some time and intermarried before their relationship turned sour after the Ezzas began to spread to other parts of Ezillo, acquiring land far beyond the area allocated to them. The Ezillos accused the Ezzas of dominating their hosts, setting the stage for a devastating conflict.

In 1959, the Ezillos dragged the Ezzas to the Abakaliki Colonial Customary Court, asking them to move back to Egu Echara. The court ruled in favour of Ezillo but the Ezzas did not respect the judgement. They appealed the case before a colonial district officer, Mr Gunning, but he struck out their appeal, asking them to obey the extant judgement.

Again, the Ezzas shunned the order of the district officer and continued to acquire more lands and properties in the communities, PREMIUM TIMES’ findings from interviews with local historians on both sides and a review of historical documents, showed. About 50 years later, the Ezzas had established a formidable community, known as Ezza-Ezzilo, amassing influence, wealth, and population that intimidated their hosts.

On May 10, 2008, a dispute between Sunday Idenyi, an Ezillo indigene, and Ezza youths over the erection of a telephone booth at the Ishimkpuma market ignited a carnage in which many people were killed.

The state governor, Mr Elechi, then set up a peace committee chaired by one Chibueze Agbo. But the violence continued, despite the efforts of the committee and government agencies.

Relocation

On October 2, 2008, Mr Elechi, in a live broadcast, ordered the Ezzas to leave Ezillo land and relocate to Egbu Echara, the 52 hectares of land initially allocated to them by their hosts around 1930. The governor then added 253.15 hectares of land to the old settlement of the Ezzas.

“This decision, taken in the interest of peace and unity, calls for a lot of sacrifice on the part of the people of Ezillo and Ezza-Ezillo as well as government and all that love peace and the wellbeing of the Ezillo community and Ebonyi State as a whole,” Mr Elechi said after imposing a 90-day curfew in the community.

But the Ezzas kicked against their relocation, leading to the governor allegedly sending in soldiers to use force to evacuate them.

“There is currently no virgin land known and called ‘Egu Echara’ as fellow Nigerians are made to believe,” the Ezzas claimed in a petition addressed to David Mark, Nigeria’s Senate President at the time. “There is no decision or order of a court of competent jurisdiction that the Ezzas should be relocated or are to be displaced from their present abodes and abandon their cultural heritage, markets, schools, and or farmlands for the Ezillos.”

The Ezzas challenged Mr Elechi in lawsuits but the case languished at the Ebonyi State High Court until the end of his tenure.

After the government demarcated the boundaries between the two warring communities, Ezza-Ezillo town became the scene of bloody clashes. The two parties procured ammunition and organised militias to attack each other, an Ezza native, Samuel Okon, said.

‘Headless bodies in Ezillo’

Jacob Ajah died in November 2009, several days after he was allegedly attacked by militants from Ezillo.

“We all thought he had cheated death but he would later die of internal bleeding,” Mr Okon narrated to PREMIUM TIMES. “Many of our youths were ambushed and killed like Jacob. Thousands of people have died over this matter.”

Mr Okon is a teacher and a custodian of the communal war archives in Ebonyi. Donning a white native shirt and a red cap, he backed his narrative with the reports of local newspapers on the fratricidal war in Ezillo. He had collected dozens of pages of white-and-black newspapers and photographs that reported the horrific killings in the community.

One of the headlines reads: “Headless bodies roll in Ezillo”. Another reads: “Death cheater dies at last”, detailing the travails of Mr Ajah and many others killed in the clashes. PREMIUM TIMES saw gory photos of victims of the carnage from both sides but whose stories were never reported in the media.

Lifeless bodies of indigenes of Ezza and Ezillo were found along the Enugu-Abakaliki road almost on a daily basis, especially during the enforcement of the evacuation orders that turned 12,000 Ezza natives into internally displaced persons. By the end of 2012, Ezza-Ezillo had been deserted.

“The killings on the Enugu-Abakaliki expressway will never stop unless Ezza-Ezillo people stop coming to Ezillo to hit-and-run,” James Abbah, a former spokesman for the Ezillo youth forum, was quoted as saying in a record.

Counterclaims of genocide

However, based on on-the-ground reporting, interviews with locals, and a review of over 500-page documents submitted to the peace committee on the crisis, neither of the sides was innocent in the attacks.

On December 31, 2011, around 2 a.m, Ezza militants invaded Ezillo, killing, maiming and setting houses ablaze. The killers also took over the Enugu-Abakaliki highway from security operatives, marring the celebration of New Year’s day in 2012.

“My general impression is not as bad as what I saw two days ago in Ezillo proper when I personally counted 26 corpses and within 10 minutes more were brought in,” Mr Elechi said after visiting some of the killing grounds.

“I doubt whether the people can again live together with this type of destruction that leaves permanent bad feelings. When you talk of reconciliation which we started in 2008, things were not as bad as we see them today and so, only God can heal the wounds, not human beings.”

Over a decade later, PREMIUM TIMES interviewed Ezillo elders. They said hundreds of their kin were killed.

A photo gallery, shown to PREMIUM TIMES, titled: “The 21st-Century Genocide in Ebonyi”, documented the violence.

“We were relying on the peace move Chief Martins Elechi, the former Governor, made. Unfortunately, we did not know that the Ezzas had ulterior motives against us,” said David Agunyi (the last name changed for his safety), a high chief in the town. “It happened that on the 31st of December, 2011, while we were preparing for the New Year 2012, these people came in their numbers with different arms and ammunition.

“Hundreds of people were killed; houses were burnt. Since then, we became more worried because that was the first time the war entered our capital,” he said.

‘Izzo is dead but Ezillo is alive’

As the reporter journeyed out of the troubled Izzo community, driving past its signpost, Mr Agunyi welcomed the visiting reporter to bustling Ezillo, contrasting the situation in Izzo which is bare of human beings. The community is alive and its people said they enjoy relative peace. Although the reporter saw bullet holes in some houses, down the streets people were enjoying normal lives as though there had never been a war.

“You are now in Ezillo town,” Mr Agunyi said as he drove through the community with the reporter. “This is where the violent conflict that eventually degenerated into a war started. This war lingered since then up till when this present government came and planted peace trees at Ishielu Local Government. Since then, we have never heard of any gunshots either by Ezzas or the Ezillos.”

After his election in 2015, Governor David Umahi moved to find an end to the deadly communal war. In 2016, he declared every September 5 as a peace day to mark the end of the war in Ezillo. In 2017, he granted the Ezzas the status of an autonomous community, expanding their territory to 500 hectares. Although Ezillo youths protested granting an autonomous community to the Ezzas, the Ebonyi State House of Assembly enacted the Peace Pact Law that sought an end to the crisis.

“This law stipulates the creation of Amaeze-Ezillo and Izzo Autonomous communities in Ishiellu council area of the state and should be deemed to have commenced on February 8, the day it was passed into law,” said Francis Nnwifuru, Speaker of the House. “I commend the committee which handled the bill for a thorough job and the House members for painstakingly reviewing its contents which guaranteed its speedy passage into law.”

However, Ezillo survivors of the 2011 massacre still live under the horror of the past. They call it “the fear of the unknown.” Many of them said they cannot go to their farms because “we may just be attacked”.

PREMIUM TIMES interviewed a few of the young men who now live with their children in small rooms given to them by relatives and public-spirited people in the community.

Renewed violence looming?

When he was younger, Amado Wnaleoguchi dreamed of building a mansion in Izzo. But his dreams died when he joined an army of local warriors fighting the Ezillo community. During our reporter’s visit to the dead community, Mr Wnaleoguchi pulled up on his bike, speeding through the forests to show this reporter the level of ruin in the land.

“This war started like a child’s play but it will end more bloodily,” the local warrior said, his grim face indicating a looming terror. “Many people will still die; people that God gave a long life to live on earth will die before time because of this crisis.”

Since the war broke out 14 years ago, Mr Wnaleoguchi and his comrades have had nothing to do but fight. They survive on donations from their well-to-do elders and sometimes on farming.

For the Ezillos and many others in Ebonyi, the war has ended since the government separated the two warring communities. But the Ezzas said they still cannot return to Izzo and rebuild the ruins.

“I am not happy with how things happened,” Mr Wnaleoguchi said. “Even though I am among the youths fighting this war, I am not happy because it is taking my time, money, and even my career.”

When it granted the community autonomy, the state government pledged to compensate victims of the attacks and reintegrate displaced persons back into society. But the promise has not been fulfilled. By July, it will be four years since this deserted area became legally autonomous but the community exists without its people.

PREMIUM TIMES witnessed a discreet meeting held on March 6 by elders in Izzo. They had gathered to express their dissatisfaction with the government for its failure to fulfil its promise to their community.

Our interaction with some of the local warriors at the meeting revealed that violence may resurface. The people are not happy with the government for not helping the displaced persons to return to the community.

Even as ominous, the Ezillos said their old foes, the Ngbo, are again encroaching on their land, felling their trees for commercial purposes.

“You see them, these people can come here to fell our trees because there’s no one to caution them,” one of the local warriors, Amando Nwaleoguchi, said. “This is an example of what causes clashes between communities. This is not right.”

As our reporter and his escorts crossed from Izzo into Ngbo, the residents welcomed them with suspicion. It had been long since they last saw people from Izzo in their territory. One of them threatened to attack the visitors. The accompanying Izzo local warriors advised the group to move back to avoid being attacked.

What’s the antidote to the endless bloodshed?

While Mr Umahi has been praised for halting the Ezillo crisis, not many pay attention to the looming terror.

Stanley Okoro, a security consultant to the Ebonyi government and former Commissioner of Internal Security, Border, Peace, and Conflict Resolution, declined to comment on the state’s failed promises when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES. Asked to react to the abandonment of the ghost Izzo community and the looming war, Mr Okoro said he would not comment on such a sensitive issue.

Uchenna Orji, the Commissioner for Information in the state, did not respond to several calls and text messages seeking reactions to the findings in this report. Philip Levi, the deputy spokesperson to the Ebonyi Police Command, said he was not in a position to comment on the matter.

But Sampson Nweke, a human rights activist in the state, said the government’s populist approach to ending the war may not produce a lasting solution.

Mr Nweke warned that there would be no permanent peace in Ezillo if the authorities fail to address the matter beyond the surface.

“A community without its people is as good as a forest,” the human rights activist said. “You can’t grant an autonomous community without school, church, market, and houses in a troubled area and expect that there will be peace forever. Whether there would be another war in Ezillo is just a matter of time. It’s like a timed bomb; it will explode when it’s time to do so.”

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series on the underreported violent communal conflicts in Ebonyi State, with spillover effects on neighbouring states.

The story was done with the support of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).