A conflict between youth groups during a session for empowerment has caused crisis in the town of Nimo in Anambra State’s Njikoka Local Government Area.
According to OBASANJO NEWS24, the altercation took place on Sunday.
Community youth, working with the Nimo Town Development Union’s Youth Wing,
had gathered in the village square for the programme when individuals from a rival group entered the arena and removed seats, canopies, and other event-related equipment.
However, the youth wing continued with the empowerment effort, and eight youths—two from each of Nimo’s four quarters—were given N250,000 each to establish their own enterprises.
Ugo Ngukor and Doms Ezeoke from Etiti-Nimo, Akunna Kingsley Chidi and Melody Fredrick Chukwuma from Ifite-enu, Uchenna Anyadiegwu and Ikejide John Paul from Egbengwu, and Uchenna Edochie Fabian Ogbuabana from Ifiteani were named as the beneficiaries.
The Nimo community youth wing also opened a place for skill development where young people could learn skills like barbering and shoemaking, among others.
The other group rushed the event, though, and started attacking everyone in the stadium, bringing the programming to an abrupt halt.
According to information obtained by OBASANJO NEWS24, the rival group was protesting the purported sale of communal land by the community’s leadership.
The traditional leader and the president general of the town union have tried everything they can to appease them, including inviting them to peace negotiations, according to a source, but they have persisted in making the town impossible to manage.
In response to the attack, Mr. Gold Obiefuna, President General of Nimo Town Development Union, Youth Wing, remarked, “We don’t want to be lawless youths. Dissidents are not who we want to fight. What they are doing is not typical of Nimo people.
We don’t want to confront them because doing so would result in a complete breakdown of law and order and definitely result in someone losing their life. We do not desire to resemble them.
Nimo is a quiet community. There is only one Owelle (monarch), one Nimo, and one youth body. They are disrupting a scheme that is intended to give their fellow young people more influence.
