Brewing Trouble

Another civil disturbance appears to be brewing between Offa and Erin-Ile communities in Kwara State over an age-long boundary dispute. This may not be unconnected with the latest decision by the Bukola Saraki administration to construct a road in the delineated buffer zone to serve as a permanent demarcation between the warring towns.

By this action, the state government might have been subtly implementing the White Paper on the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the 20 June 2006 disturbances between the two towns. The White Paper was recorded in the 28 February 2008 edition of Kwara State of Nigeria Gazette. It was gathered that the commission blamed the incident on the ineptitude of successive administrations in the state, particularly for their inability to make their presence felt in the buffer zone. The Bukola Saraki administration, as recorded in the gazetted White Paper, therefore directed that the shared parcels of land between the two communities should be properly demarcated with a boundary road, to be called Kwara Unity Road, that would occupy the balance of 12.745 hectares of land. Aside being surveyed, the road would be properly surface-dressed as a permanent demarcation containing other boundary features like trees on both sides of the road. While many analysts think that the new arrangement is capable of bringing a lasting solution to the threatened peace in the area, both Offa and Erin-Ile have opposed it, for different reasons. Offa community considers the government’s action as not only provocative and repugnant, but also at variance with sections 3(6) and 9(3) of the 1999 Constitution. Erin-Ile, on the other hand, is tenaciously laying claim to the purported Supreme Court judgment of 1973 which was said to have upheld the findings and recommendations of the Adaramola Commission of Inquiry as well as the decision of Col. Ibrahim Taiwo administration in 1975, which allegedly fixed the boundary at the Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s office at Idi Ogun, now in Offa. Addressing a press conference recently at Offa, the Offa Mesi Society, a powerful socio-political group, alleged that the road ate deep into Offa land and extended “far beyond the lawful and legal boundary line”. It further alleged that the road was not in conformity with the White Paper and gazette issued by government on the commission’s findings. Offa Mesi Society, which has Senator Suleiman Salawu as its political leader, maintained that Kere Ipinle, where the peace accord was signed into law in September 1975 by the former military administrator of the state, Col. Ibrahim Taiwo, now deceased, and was christened ‘The Local Boundaries Settlement (Amendment) Edict No 16 of 1975’, remains the boundary line between the two communities. Salawu recalled how the idea of the buffer zone was advanced by another military governor, Col Ahmed Abdullahi, whose administration acquired 500 metres of land from the two communities in the disputed area for use as an industrial/commercial layout to ensure lasting peace. He said this was signed into law by yet another military administrator, Col. P.A.M. Ogar on 29 July 1997 as Kere-Ipinle Buffer Zone Order of 1997 and gazetted on 19 March 1998. The senator, who said the Offa community believed that these facts were being shielded from Governor Saraki by certain individuals, appealed to the state government to take direct control of the Offa/Erin-Ile boundary dispute to avert another outbreak of violence in the area. But in a press statement on the historical legal facts on the boundary dispute, Erin-Ile Progressive Union said the Adaramola Commission of Inquiry set up in 1972 by the then military governor, Brigadier David Bamigboye, investigated all the historical claims of the two communities and thereafter recommended that the boundary be fixed at the present site of the PHCN transformer at Idi-Ogun which is now in Offa. It further claimed the state government upheld the decision by issuing a White Paper on it and later having it gazetted. Not satisfied, Offa community was said to have gone to court, up to the Supreme Court, to challenge this decision of government, but their prayer was allegedly rejected. The union said Erin-Ile regarded the Col. Taiwo Peace Accord of 1975 as unacceptable and a trespass, since an administrative decision could not set aside a Supreme Court judgment. Frowning at the construction of a road within its land, the union said Erin-Ile community immediately caused a letter to be written to Governor Bukola Saraki, urging his administration to continue to recognise the boundary decision made by the Supreme Court since the judgment has not been reversed. The union said that since the judgment subsists, it regards “the road under construction as a road within the territory of Erin-Ile constructed by government to facilitate commerce and transportation for the people”. The union said that it has not received any formal response to the letter, and claimed that no government White Paper has been released on the 2006 riot between the two communities. While pledging to continue being law abiding and committed to maintaining peace, the union unequivocally stressed that on the Supreme Court decision which fixed the boundary between the two communities at the PHCN site stands until that decision is overturned. Reacting to the developments on behalf of the state government, the Commissioner for Information and Home Affairs, Abdulmumini Katibi denied any allegation of bias against it by either of the two communities. He stressed that the state government was only implementing the White Paper on the commission’s recommendations.