*AN OPEN MESSAGE TO THE DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF ABIA STATE*

Your Excellency,

*Ikechukwu Emetu*

We write with deep pain, shock, and growing concern over your recent involvement in the Ogbuebulu land matter between Ndi Ebe Abam and Ndi Oji Ugwo Abam.

Let the truth be clearly stated:

This land matter was litigated from the High Court to the *Supreme Court of Nigeria,* and final judgment was delivered in 2002 in favour of Ndi Ebe Abam. For over 22 (twenty-two years), both communities have lived peacefully.

We were therefore taken aback when seven truckloads of armed military personnel were ordered into our peaceful community in an attempt to enforce a survey plan inconsistent with the Supreme Court-validated judgement. We are not at war. We have never been at war with Ndi Oji Ugwo Abam — and we never will be.

Killing an Ndi Oji Ugwo man is like killing your own blood.

Destroying their property is like destroying what you helped to build.

We share history, marriages, farms, markets, and family ties. Why would we go to war with people who are part of us?

Yet armed men entered our community. Women and elderly people fled in fear into bushes and plantations. In the process of running for safety, some sustained injuries. This is heartbreaking for a community that has done nothing but obey the law and respect constituted authority.

We are further saddened by the emotional blackmail and sympathy narrative being projected and  circulated — portraying Ndi Ebe Abam as land grabbers, forcefully taking over land, as oppressive, as wicked, as heartless — without telling the public that the land in question was conclusively adjudicated by the Supreme Court since 2002 and not a today's event.

Many have believed this one-sided story because they have not heard from us.

*Today, we speak.*

We do not wish to assume that Your Excellency was fully briefed that this matter ceased to be legally disputed over two decades ago. If there has been any misunderstanding, we respectfully urge a review of the Supreme Court judgment and the survey plan upon which it was based.

If peace is the objective, dialogue should come before force.

If justice is the goal, fair hearing must precede action.

The Constitution of Nigeria is clear: Supreme Court judgments are final and binding on all authorities and persons.

We are not enemies of Ndi Oji Ugwo Abam. They remain our brothers and sisters. What hurts us most is being painted publicly as aggressors when we are simply standing on a judgment delivered by the highest court in the land.

Your Excellency, we appeal to your conscience:

Do not allow this matter to escalate.

Do not allow armed presence to replace dialogue.

Do not allow a settled judicial matter to become a source of division.

We reject violence absolutely.

We reject hostility.

We reject propaganda.

We stand for peace.

We stand for truth.

We stand for the rule of law.

Let justice prevail.

Let peace endure in Abam.

Let the Supreme Court judgment stand.

Signed,

*Concerned Citizens of Ndi Ebe Abam*

Arochukwu LGA, Abia State