After 49 years of heated crisis over ownership of a fish pond, the people of Egba and Ologba communities in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State have organized a joint fishing festival to mark the end of the age-long conflicts between them.
State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Michael Inalegwu, who stated this while speaking to the Next Edition in Makurdi, said the two communities have been at logger heads over the ownership of the pond, a crisis which has claimed over 600 lives.
According to him, “Since 1973, the Egba and Ologba have been having conflict over the ownership of a fish pond called Ochulo. Series of court judgments which were pronounced over the issue were ignored and some misinterpreted.
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“Government waded in severally and there were agreements and counter-agreements but they were not fruitful. When Governor Samuel Ortom came, we had four years of dialogue in government house and there was no solution until the intervention of some NGOs.”
Inalegwu who noted that the crisis made the two communities a ghost of their former selves said the crisis claimed the lives of over 600 promising young people on both sides with property worth billions of naira destroyed.
He, therefore, expressed happiness that peace has returned to both communities and called on members of the Benue public to always subscribe to dialogue rather than using adversarial approaches to resolving their conflicts.
The commissioner explained that the peace agreement signed between the two communities was achieved through the collaborative efforts of some international organizations such as Mercy Corp, Humanitarian Dialogue, HD, Search for Common Ground and several Civil Society Organizations, CSOs.
“We organized a fishing festival between the two communities where they will jointly go into the pond and fish together. The two communities have also agreed to jointly own the pond and fix a date to fish there annually.”
