Five persons have been reported killed in a land dispute at Nteje, Oyi local government area of Anambra State.
The traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Rowland Odegbo, disclosed this to newsmen in Awka, the state capital on Monday.
He said 18 persons had been arrested from the community over the dispute, including a 70-year-old brother of a Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie.
According to PUNCH, Odegbo said he escaped being arrested following Governor Willie Obiano’s intervention.
He decried incessant harassment of his people by the police from outside the state, stating that his community was under police siege.
He said some of the people killed were the morgue, while most youths in the area had fled the town and hidden in forests for fear of being arrested and taken to Abuja by the powers that be.
He gave the list of the persons arrested and being detained in Abuja SARS as Chief Ikechukwu Edochie, Chief Cyril Nwankwo, Mr. Vincent Okongu, Pastor Vin Nnaemeka, Modilim Nwene, Anthony Ewenike, Dominic Oboh, Sunday Mobi, Paul Aghadinuno, the landMonday Nwafor and Nwoye Amamchukwu.
Others were Obelagu Mobi, Koife Chukwuemeka, Ogwugwua Nweke, Fidelis Cordi, Ibe Kenneth, Chijioke Anyanti and Uchenna Oraegbunam.
The monarch said the land dispute was engineered by land speculators who constituted themselves into a cabal and illegally sold communal land for many years.
He said they were not making any returns to the villagers, hence trouble began which led to the death of three persons on 11th of March this year when two factions involved in the sale of the land clashed.