Barely a week after residents of the destroyed Okuama community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State are returning to their ruins, women of the Okoloba community in Bomadi Local Government Area have cried out over the return of alleged armed youths of Okuama to the area.
Recall that an age-long dispute over a piece of land between Okuama and Okoloba on March 14, 2024, led to the gruesome killing of 17 officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army who were purportedly on a peace mission.
The tragedy, which was globally condemned, led to the invasion, occupation, and levelling of the Okuama community by aggrieved soldiers and a brutal manhunt for the fleeing marauders.
Only a public school, a cathedral, and a few economic trees were left standing by the rampaging soldiers.
After 51 days of laying siege on the community, during which youths were believed to have executed the killing of the soldiers and officers, the military authorities pulled out of Okuama.
As a result, the displaced people of Okuama began to return in peace, but the protesting women of Okoloba, an Ijaw enclave, claimed on Saturday that youths returning to Okuama are armed, posing a dangerous threat to people in the area.
The women, who were armed with placards, were led by the chair lady of the Okoloba community, Mrs Timipakebi Goodwin, and the secretary, Mrs. Mary Koibi.
They staged a peaceful protest adorned in black attire along the coastal fringe of the Okoloba community, chanting against violence and bloodbath, as well as sending a message to the Federal Government to come to their aid.
Some of the placards read: “We say ‘No to violence, enough of the killings on our land,’ “armed Okuama youths returning in a commando style,” “We say ‘No’ to the return of armed youths of Okuama,” “resettle Okuama people among their Ewu brothers in Ughelli South LGA,” and “we mourn the killing of the 17 soldiers, among others.
The chairwoman of Okoloba, Mrs Goodwin, read to journalists a written address already made available to security agencies and the local government.
She noted that the alleged latest killing by the youths of Okuama showed that they could kill human beings at the slightest provocation.
“First, we, the women of the Okoloba community, sympathise with the killing of 17 soldiers and officers of the Nigerian army on a peace and rescue mission to Okuama, following the kidnapping of our son.
“We sincerely mourn their untimely deaths and pray for the repose of their souls. We also pray for their families.
“However, less than 24 hours after the exit of the troops from Okuama, a fresh crisis erupted with another neighbouring community, culminating in the killing of one person while three other persons were seriously injured.
“The person who was killed and those who sustained machete wounds were alleged to have gone there to loot.
“The latest killing showed that the people of Okuama can kill a human at the slightest provocation; the sanctity of human life means nothing to them.
“It also shows that neighbouring Ijaw communities like Okoloba are not safe.
“So, resettling the people of Okuama in their present location, which is in-between communities in Bomadi Local Government Area, is an attempt to encourage further communal clashes and bloodbaths.
“Just last week, youths of the Okuama community came out of the Mein-toruabubor creek, which leads to Ewu, on three speedboats, all of them camouflaged.
“They shot sporadically in the air before proceeding to OKuama. They moved to and from the creek three times, and every time, they shot in the air at the entrance of the creek.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to come to our aid, and the panacea to these incessant clashes and killings is for the government to relocate Okuama to the Ewu clan in Ughelli South Local Government Area, where they truly and rightly belong.
“Resettling them among their own people in the Ewu clan of Urhobo land will foster mutual trust among themselves as they are of the same ancestry and speak the same dialect,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the president-general of the Okuama community, Mr. James Akata, who was reached via his mobile phone by our correspondent on Saturday, refuted the claim that Okuama youths had returned to the land with arms to destroy.
“Before the coming of one Ijaw man, Patrick Akpobolokemi, to Okuama, we’ve been living at peace with Okoloba people; we’re even intermarried.
“Shortly after the soldiers pulled out of Okuama last week, Okoloba boys invaded the ruins and began to loot iron rods and what have you from the ruins of people’s sweat. Isn’t it salt upon injury? Looting from a destroyed community? No empathy for the people’s plight?
“On returning, Okuama youths met Okoloba boys looting their ruins. For people who have met all their life struggles in ruins, it’s just natural for them to vent their anger on the looters.
“Please do know that Okoloba people have a grand plan to deroot Okuama people from their ancestral home. That’s what one of the leaders there said after soldiers occupied the land.
“The federal government and state government should do everything possible to change the narrative and thwart the plan of the Okolobas.
“We have suffered enough destruction already. All our buildings and the property in them were destroyed. Some of us are still in exile because there’s nothing left to return to.
“In fact, is it not even dangerous for us to return home without the government providing any form of security for the returnees?
“Okuama indigenes are peaceful people. We’re brothers to our neighbours. Planning to deroot us completely from our ancestral lands should not be allowed to materialise,” he pleaded.
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