The Amasiri Clan of Afikpo Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, has raised serious national and international concerns over what it described as state-backed military repression, occupation of ancestral lands, and unlawful detention of community leaders.
This was disclosed in a press conference held on 5 February 2026 at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) FCT Council in Abuja.
Addressing journalists, the clan’s spokesperson, Princess Joy Idam, accused the Ebonyi State Government of deploying the military against peaceful civilians over unverified allegations, leading to mass arrests, forced displacement, destruction of homes, economic paralysis, and the suspension of civil life across Amasiri communities. She described the operation as collective punishment that violates both the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights standards.
According to the clan, the military action stemmed from an uninvestigated allegation linking Amasiri residents to a murder in neighbouring Oso, Edda Local Government Area. No suspects were identified, and no fair trial was conducted. While condemning the murder and expressing sympathy with the victim’s family, Amasiri leaders rejected what they called the criminalisation of an entire community without evidence.
The clan alleged that schools, markets, and churches were shut down; farming and trading activities halted; and residents were forced to flee. Amasiri indigenes in Abakaliki were reportedly ordered to leave the city, civil servants faced verbal termination notices, and students were required to declare their origin actions the clan described as discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Further, the Amasiri leadership claimed the community was removed from development plans, detached from Afikpo Local Government Area, and placed under joint administration with four other LGAs, effectively erasing its political and administrative identity.
They cited a statement attributed to the Governor warned that within weeks “there would be no one left in the community,” describing it as threatening and dehumanising.
Providing historical context, the clan noted that boundary tensions with Oso had been resolved in a government-gazetted White Paper in 2003, reaffirmed in 2023, and strengthened by a peace agreement in December 2025. Despite compliance, government ministries allegedly stalled demarcation, even after Amasiri citizens offered to fund the exercise in January 2026.
The crisis escalated on 30 January 2026, when the military conducted mass arrests and the Ebonyi State Government allegedly dissolved the entire political and traditional leadership of Amasiri, including traditional rulers, town union executives, and village heads, without investigation or court order. As of the press briefing, two Ezeogos and the Coordinator of the Amasiri Development Centre remained in detention for over a week.
The clan highlighted what it described as selective justice, contrasting the rapid militarisation of Amasiri with official silence over repeated attacks, abductions, and killings of Amasiri citizens in the past year. Regarding the disputed Okporo-Ụjo land, the clan insisted it is ancestral, alleging that Oso settlers were historically accommodated as tenants and that the current crisis reflects an attempt to dispossess the host community through state power.
Calling for urgent intervention, the Amasiri Clan appealed to the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the National Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, and the international community. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of military forces, an independent investigation into the killings, arrests, and property destruction, restoration of schools and economic life, reversal of collective sanctions, and release of detained leaders.
“We are law-abiding citizens, not enemies of the state,” the clan stressed, insisting on protection under the law and recognition of their rights.
