4 injured as herdsmen, farmers clash in Anambra

ONITSHA —NO fewer than four persons were, yesterday, hospitalized following injuries they sustained when some Fulani herdsmen and farmers clashed in a farmland at Okoti-Odekpe community in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State. This came as some communities in Nimbo, Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State donated over 350 hectares of land to enable the African Nations Development Program, ANDP, build a home for Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the area. According to the source, the clash started at about 10 a.m. when the herdsmen invaded the farmland with their cattle and destroyed a large farmland which resulted in a clash as a farmer from Okoti-Odekpe and three herdsmen were injured. Eyewitnesses told newsmen that it was the herdsmen that first launched the attack against the farmers with cutlasses and injured one Dubem Ononuju. This led the farmers to launch a reprisal attack and they injured three herdsmen. The incident attracted the attention of soldiers, navy and policemen, who rushed to the scene and rescued the herdsmen from the youths of the community and took the injured to a nearby hospital. Confirming the incident, the Police Area Commander for Onitsha, Yahaya Abubakar, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said some arrests were made. Communities donate 350 hectares of land for IDPs Under the African Nations Development Program in Nimbo, the agency is to build 5,000 housing units for displaced persons in the area, following the attack on them by some Fulani herdsmen April last year, which left over 40 persons dead and several families displaced. Sources told Vanguard that “after the attack by herdsmen on Nimbo, the ANDP came up with a programme to rehabilitate the IDPs. They are building 5,000 housing units for displaced persons, a secondary school, a university, hospital and a shopping mall.” A statement signed by the President General of Nimbo Town Union, Chief Christian Nwodi, stated that the 350 hectares of land were donated freely, adding that the promises made by ANDP to build the social amenities for displaced people in the area formed the basis for the donation of the land.