Land Dispute Resolution Strategies among the Anioma/Asaba People of Delta State-Nigeria

Abstract

Land disputes as they exist in the Nigerian Anioma ethnic group (Asaba in particular) consists of communities, families or individuals making claims and counter claims over the ownership of land. The aftermath of these land related disputes are better imagined than experienced. Land disputes, especially those involving the claim of original settlers, experiences of mythology and ethnology breeds bad blood. Many communities who had involved themselves in skirmishes over land disputes have suffered losses of lives and properties. Traditional conflict resolution existed in Asaba before the introduction of the use of the litigation in conflict and land dispute in the first quarters of the nineteen nineties. Up till date, the court is filled with many land dispute cases awaiting trials. In spite of the delays, waste of time and financial losses inherent in the court system, parties in land disputes still patronise the court system. The paper examines the land dispute strategies in use in Asaba and highlights the challenges and constraints inherent in them, especially in contemporary Asaba. Its methodology includes review of reports on land dispute resolutions that have occurred among Anomia/Asaba people, the use of questionnaire and oral interview. The data collected from these combined sources were analysed and the findings include one, that patterns of land ownership have changed in contemporary Asaba, two, that the traditional mediation and arbitration processes yielded much better results than the modern/recent ones, and three, land dispute in Anomia culture/Asaba now result in violence with many such dispute cases in the court and awaiting trial. Therefore, the paper primarily recommends that Delta State Government should incorporate aspects of Anioma/Asaba indigenous settlement strategies in its judicial process among the recognised Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADB) mechanisms as civilised means of resolving disputes.