IYEKEZE- The Enogie of Iyekeze village in Ovia North East Local government area of Edo State, HRH Bright Aiyevbugie and leaders of the community have denied destroying any building in Iguomon N’Evbuiyoba community.

The Enogie who debunked the allegations of Iguomon Community in an interview with newsmen appealed to HRM Oba Ewuare II to come to their aid to stop the encroachment of their land by Iguomon community.

According to him, “they should revisit the judgment passed in 2013, that gave the right hand side to Iguomon and the left hand side to Iyekeze. The position Iguomon is claiming now is on the left hand side which belong to Iyekeze.

“Iguomon community had always occupied the right hand side when coming from Benin to Iguobazuwa, while Iyekeze is on the left. In 2012 Iguomon community summoned the Enogie to the palace for burying a corpes in Eguomon land and the Enogie was dragged to court.

“In 2013, a Judgment was delivered by the palace that the boundary between Iyekeze and Iguomon should be the tar road and Iguomon should occupy the tar road on the right hand and Iyekeze on the left, the Enogie noted.

He recalled that recently, a land was allocated to the secretary of the community and the person he sent to dig a well there was chased away by Iguomon youths and they also disturbed him when he put trips of sand there.

According to him, when a meeting was scheduled to find out those responsible, the Odionwere refused to attend the meeting but instead sent youths to represent him and this made the Enogie not to talk with them because he wanted the attention of the Odionwere and the elders.

He further disclosed that, “ in 2014, a man called Ibrahim Adewunmi came looking for a land to plant cocoa farm on the left hand side. His first point of call was Iguomo and the present Odionwere and one Akugbe told the man that the area does not belong to them and they led the man to Iyekeze where a land was approved for him and today there is a camp there..

“The disputed area which Iguomon is laying claim to is the road that leads to the camp and that is where the building was erected. We do not know why a place which in 2014 did not belong to them and that was why they brought the man there, now they are claiming ownership in 2020.

“It is not true that Iyekeze community destroyed their building as been alleged by Iguomon. It was Iguomon community youths that destroyed the foundation which we had laid. When the secretary was building the four rooms, they disturbed him and they went behind to lay a foundation of one single room with his blocks, sand and gravels.

“ When we saw this we wrote a petition to the AIG of Police who invited us for a meeting by 10: am. We were there from 10: am to 2:pm and Iguomon people did not turn up for the meeting. It was later that we heard that Iguomon youths were destroying the foundation we laid there.

“They used a log to block the access to the community to stop people from getting to the place. It is not true Iyekeze destroyed any property, they never harassed anybody with guns, all they are saying are mere allegations,” he added.

Amongst community leaders present during the interview was the Odionwere of Iyekeze, David Aigbekai and the secretary of the community