There is an old proverb in our land: “when the kite hovers, the mother hen spreads her wings; when the kite strikes, she cries to the heavens. For silence, in the face of danger, is not strength—it is surrender”.
This is the story of Amasiri community today, a people whose only crime seems to be their insistence on justice, dignity, and the right to live in peace on their ancestral soil.
For years, Amasiri community in Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has been locked in a protracted land dispute with the Oso people, emigrants from Edda Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, who out of love, were allowed to stay, hunt and prepare their catch to avoid decay should they be coming from the distant hills of EDDA town.
Tensions flared, hostilities brewed, and lives were unsettled.
Past administrations in Ebonyi State intervened. Through the State Ministry of Border and Conflict Resolution, a peace committee was constituted. After deliberations, an agreement was reached that: hostilities would cease; boundaries would be delineated; demarcation would be carried out to secure lasting peace. It was a handshake of hope—fragile but promising.
But hope delayed is hope denied.
Under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Ogbonnia Francis Nwifuru, the implementation of the agreed boundary demarcation stalled.
The people of Amasiri were urged—pleaded with—to withdraw their lawsuit on the disputed land in the spirit of reconciliation. Trusting the promise of peace, they obeyed. They sheathed their legal sword and waited.
They are still waiting.
While Amasiri waited in faith, barricades rose on the federal highway across Oso community leading to the centre of their town, Amasiri. Alleged warlords and youths from Oso community blocked roads, abducted Amsiri travellers, and spilled blood. Each time, Amasiri cried out—to the government, to the police, to the military command, to the Department of State Services, to the governor’s office. Their cries echoed. No help came.
Then came the tragic burning of a trailer, set ablaze by Oso community militias amid roadside hostility against the people of Amasiri. Lives were lost. Fear deepened.
Days later, unknown assailants attacked Oso community, killing and beheading about four (4) persons.
Before investigation could speak, accusation thundered. Fingers pointed at Amasiri.
Judgment seemed to precede inquiry.
Instead of ordering an independent investigation, swift and heavy sanctions fell upon Amasiri from the governor of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon. Ogbonnia Francis Nwifuru.
Amasiri Traditional rulers were dethroned, arrested and detained together with the coordinator of Amasiri Development Centre till this moment. The Amasiri Development Centre was delisted in just few hours sitting by the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, A 20-hour daily curfew was imposed and remains in place. Schools were shut. Teachers transferred. Staff members of Amasiri Development Centre transferred out of Amasiri, State political appointees of Amasiri descent sacked. Hospitals in Amasiri land closed. Markets sealed. Amasiri students in various schools in Ebonyi State Profiled, Soldiers deployed in overwhelming presence.
And with deployment came more sorrow—allegations of excesses, of young men brutalized, women assaulted, elders humiliated, children injured. Purported shallow graves discovery by the military announced. A community turned into refugees in its ancestral home.
When markets close, hunger speaks.
When schools close, the future dims.
When hospitals close, sickness becomes a death sentence.
When curfew silences streets, fear becomes the loudest sound.
Yet amid this suffocation, Amasiri did the only thing left within their power—they wrote. They wrote letters. They wrote statements. They took to the internet.
They called on the world to listen and hear who they are and what they pass through from the hand of their governor. And now they are told to stop writing.
How can you beat a child and forbid him from crying?
How can a mother hen watch the kite feast upon her chicks and remain silent?
Silence in the face of pain is complicity in one’s own extinction.
A cry for help is not rebellion; it is survival.
A governor is father to all—both sons in dispute. Justice demands balance, not selective fury. If one son errs, investigate. If another is accused, verify.
Peace is not built on intimidation but on fairness.
Reconciliation is not achieved by curfew alone but by courage—the courage to implement agreed resolutions, to demarcate boundaries as promised, to let facts speak before punishment falls.
Calling a people “barbarians” and suggesting they seek another state via referendum wounds deeper than any blade. Citizenship is not conditional. Homeland is not negotiable.
If the peace committee’s resolution still lies unimplemented, then peace itself lies suspended. The kite continues to circle.
Amasiri’s cry (writings and name-calling the governor) is not a declaration of war; it is a plea for justice. Not a rebellion against the authority of the governor; but a reminder that authority must protect, not persecute. Not an insult to leadership; but a call for leadership to rise to its noblest duty.
History teaches that when voices are suppressed, pain multiplies. But when justice is done—and seen to be done—peace takes root.
The mother hen will continue to cry, not because she loves noise, but because she loves her chicks.
And until the kite is driven away—until boundaries are demarcated, investigations conducted independently, sanctions reviewed with fairness, and dignity restored—her cry will not cease. For silence, in such a time, would mean the chicks are already lost.
And no mother, no community, no people, can accept that.
I come in peace✌️.