Two people were said to have lost their lives as Opolo and Okutukutu communities in Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, clashed over a land dispute on Monday.
The youths from the two neighbouring communities located at the heartbeat of the state capital are said to be engaging each other in a communal clash over the ancestral boundaries of their communal land.
Also, property belonging to the non-indigenes of the area was said to have been destroyed by the rampaging youths.
Some indigenes of Opolo, who told the Nigerian Tribune on condition of anonymity, said the fight between the two brotherly communities is unnecessary as they have been living together in peace for several years, even before the creation of Bayelsa State and the emergence of Yenagoa as the state capital.
They said the struggle for land demarcation between the two communities is a result of the development that has been attracted to the areas because Yenagoa is the capital city, a situation that has attracted property developers to the area, thereby creating the challenges of proper identification of the ancestral boundaries between the two communities.
The youth president of Okutukutu Community, Kester Wilcox, told the Nigerian Tribune that it was actually the youths of Opolo Community that attacked Okutukutu Community and started destroying property belonging to mostly strangers before those property owners mobilised themselves and also retaliated.
Though he said the casualty figures could not be ascertained at the moment, he urged both the youths of Okutukutu and Opolo Communities, as well as strangers residing in both communities, to embrace peace, as peace is priceless for accelerated development of the area
He said there has been an age-long boundary issue between the two communities, but the reason is that it should snowball into a violent attack on innocent people.
He said, “What really happened is that this afternoon, I got a call that youths of Opolo Community are destroying houses belonging to Okutukutu Community, so the owners of the property, especially strangers who reside in that axis of the community, now mobilised themselves to retaliate and protect their property.
“But now, since it happened in Okutukutu, they will always say it was Okutukutu people that caused the problem, but it was strangers whose property we’re destroying that retaliated. We had an age-long boundary issue with Opolo even before I was born, but it should degenerate into a violent attack.
Police Spokesman in Bayelsa State, ASP Musa Muhammed, who confirmed the crisis, said men from the tactical team of the command have been dispatched to the warring areas to restore peace and calm.
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