Herders Said ‘One Nigeria’ While Destroying Our Lives — Enugu Community Laments

About thirty years ago, a suburb styled ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ in Ezimo Community, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State was a beehive of activities. Many people, mainly from Amaogbolle Village, sought after ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ because of its serenity, fertility, and level topography. The land is owned communally, so the acquisition was automatic for grown-up males who fulfilled the requirements set aside by the village authorities.

A visit to once-bubbling ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ by THE WHISTLER on Sunday showed a deserted enclave, with no soul still living there. Few walls were still standing, though without roofs. Many buildings that housed people had been pulled down by the owners.

“They used whatever they could salvage from the buildings to reconstruct new ones in distance places they consider to be more secured,” narrates Onyebuchi, this reporter’s tour guide. “And ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ is no more. I could recall when it was a happening place. I remember that some big men lived there. A director at the National Orientation Agency, one Mr Godwin Okafor, lived there. He later relocated to ‘Abuja Amaogbelle’. A Catholic priest whose parents lived there recently evacuated them to another location where the family built a new house. The whole thing bothers on security.”

The Journey To Extinction Of ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’

Mr Ejike Agbo claims to be among the last set of occupants of ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’. He stated that, “I left there with tears. It was difficult leaving my ancestral home founded by my father. We were sacked by the fear of Fulani herders. They never allowed us to have a breathing space. Every day, they would pass through our compounds with
their cattle. They don’t mind walking through somebody’s farmlands. And if one shouts, they would reply ‘one Nigeria’. It became very recurring.”

Ejike recalls how the herders destroyed their crops. “The worst was on our crops. The cattle would eat up everything unchallenged. They ate my cassava. I contacted our community’s Forest Guards. But we couldn’t do anything. This one just happened last year. We stopped planting crops in our neighbourhood because of their activities. So we were begging for planting spaces elsewhere.”

Ejike stated, however, that the herders never attacked them physically.

“In terms of physical assault, the herders never attacked us, but we became vulnerable. We were afraid every day. We also did not confront them because of fear. We were not comfortable leaving our wives and children behind. It was terrible.”

The Last Straw

Early this year, narrates Ejike, there was a kidnap incident at Ezimo community. The scene of the incident was not at ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’, according to him. He continued, “But we gathered that the kidnappers passed through a gravel excavation site behind ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’. It was scary. We had to leave. I now live in a rented house at Amaogu. We were the last to live there. Before we finally left, marking the end of the suburb, others had left due to the activities of the Fulanis.”

Ejike said he was not happy leaving the settlement. He also called on the government to secure the place so he and his family could return to their homeland.

“I am not happy at all,” he laments. “It has made us homeless. You can imagine a land that I had planned to live with my family forever. We had palm trees growing up. We also planted guava, oranges, pineapples
and so on. None of them is standing anymore. What you now see there are cashew trees. And because nobody lives there, the cashew trees are threatened by bush burning.

“I want the state government to intervene. Economically, I spend more as a tenant. Leaving my ancestral home makes me feel empty. I am a builder, and whatever I get now is spent on paying house rent. It is quite different when one is in his ancestral home. It is highly disturbing.”

Hyginus Okafor once lived at the defunct ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’. He said many occupants demolished their houses and took whatever was valuable to reconstruct fresh houses elsewhere.

In his words, “The once-bubbling ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ became isolated, making human occupation of that place very dangerous. Many people who lived there had converted their households to cashew plantations.
Everybody ran away at the same time. Criminals were doing whatever they wanted because there was no security. Those who lived after we had left saw hell. There were recurring cases of armed robbery. The herders also contributed to our ordeals. So the best option was to leave.

“The other reason was that most people built houses there and kept their aged parents and families in them. The headache of possible attacks on them forced many to relocate them to a new layout called ‘Abuja Amaogbelle’.”

Offor, a native of the village, recounted: “Lagos Amaogbelle was at a time among the suburbs that people were eager to live in. It was a beautiful layout. Many factors led to its extinction. Many of the occupants left because of loneliness. The Fulani factor might be there, but those that recently left the place was because they were lonely. Insecurity was also a factor. It will be difficult to secure the place because it is located in a wilderness. If it had been encouraged by the provision of security and other basic amenities, ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ would have been the best settlement for our people.
The government may consider constructing access roads to that place to return it to life.”

It was gathered that a greater number of the occupants now live at the new settlement called ‘Abuja Amaogbelle’. Meletus Nnamani lives at ‘Abuja Amaogbelle’.

He said, “Abuja Amaogbelle became the alternative when ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ collapsed. Abuja is more favoured because it has more clusters of people. The clans that own it made it compulsory that anyone who would be allotted a space there must build a house. That is why there are many buildings in the new settlement. It has also no security threat. It also has an accessible road and electricity. Many of those who occupied ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ have relocated to Abuja,
which prides as the capital.”

A survey by our correspondent showed that the road to ‘Lagos Amaogbelle’ had become deserted, with the sounds of tippers at a near-distance borrow pit being the only sign of human existence around the suburb.

Herders Said ‘One Nigeria’ While Destroying Our Lives — Enugu Community Laments is first published on The Whistler Newspaper