News

18 mind bogging questions which investigators must probe as soldiers raze buildings in Okuama

Published

6 months ago

March 18, 2024

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

KILLING OF SOLDIERS IN DELTA: UMPAG CONDEMNS ATTACK ON SOLDIERS, RAZING OF OKUAMA COMMUNITY, CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT PANEL OF ENQUIRY

The Urhobo Media Practitioners Advocacy Group (UMPAG), college of Urhobo media practitioners worldwide, received with rude shock the heinous and dastardly murder of 15 military personnel, including the commanding officer of 181 Amphibious Batallion, two Majors and a Captain by unknown gunmen around the bank of Okuama community in Ewu Kingdom in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

As a body of trained media workers, we condemn in strong terms the killing of the military personnel and some indigenes of the Okuama community. From information available to us, there is a grand conspiracy to twist the facts of the bizarre incident to paint one party as savages and adjudge another as saints.

From our findings, the incident is coming on the heels of the renewed crisis over a land dispute between Okuama community in Ughelli South and Okoloba community in Bomadi Local Government Areas of the state.

The Urhobos of Okuama community in Ewu Kingdom have lived peacefully with their Okoloba neighbours for ages. Both communities have robust inter-marriages and can even speak both Urhobo and Ijaw languages fluently.

We have also been informed that leading from the killings of the personnel, Okuama community has been completely razed down by angry soldiers. The situation has sacked peace and law abiding citizens of Okuama community, especially when it has not been established that Okuama youths were responsible for this gruesome killing of the military men. This, too, we strongly condemn in strong terms.

While we commiserate with the Nigerian military, the Federal Government and the Delta State Government on the unwarranted killing of these personnel, we join other Nigerians to demand for an independent investigation and arrest of the culprits.

To this end, we call on the Delta State Government and the Nigerian Army to urgently constitute a joint panel of enquiry to unravel the cause and what led to the killing of the soldiers on the said peace mission to Okuama and Okoloba communities.

Falling from information available to us, we demand that the panel probe the following areas:

1. What was the true mission of the soldiers to Okuama and Okoloba communities?*

*2. Was the Ovie (King) of Ewu Kingdom and her subjects informed of the military visit on a peace mission?*

*3. Was the Executive Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, informed of the PEACE mission?*

4. *Why did the situation report come from DPO Bomadi, and not DPO, Otu-Jeremi?*

*6. Why would the military, stationed in Bomadi, embark on a “PEACE” mission to Okuama in Ughelli South, without the involvement of DPO Jeremi, and local government officials?*

*7. Why was the military “PEACE” mission escorted by Ijaw youths?*

*8. How come, that civilian members of the “PEACE” mission survived to tell the story, yet no military man survived?*

*9. If the King, PG, DPO Jeremi, LG officials were not involved, who were those to sign the peace accord?*

*10. Why did the situation report come from DPO Bomadi, and not DPO, Otu-Jeremi?*

*11. Where did the community source such sophisticated weapons to wage such war against the military men?*

*12. Why were the police, DSS and other sister security agencies not involved in the military peace mission to Okuama?*

*13. Why was the military peace mission only for the Okuama community?*

*14. From the reports, the bodies of the slain military personnel were recovered from the Forcados River. Who dumped the bodies in the River?*

*15. Are we not sure that warlords from neighbouring areas were responsible for the attack on soldiers?*

*16. Was Okuama and Okoloba at war for 16 soldiers to be gruesomely killed in less than 24hrs?*

*17. Who were the civilians that took the military to Okuama as quoted in the report by Sunday Bomadi Chancel who had earlier claimed over 22 soldiers were killed?

18. Who were the Ijaw civilians who accompanied the soldiers to Okuama? How come they survived while the soldiers were killed?*

*19. There are many mindboggling questions to be asked on the incident.*

From the foregoing, we call on the Executive Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori and the Nigerian military to thoroughly investigate the attack on the soldiers and the people of Okuama community.

As media professionals, we are mediators and peace advocates; we therefore call on our people in Okuama community and our Ijaw brothers in Okoloba community to maintain the existing peace, while the Government and the military get to the root of this tragedy.

We use this medium to call on the military to refrain from assaulting peace and law-abiding citizens of the area in face of the recent development. We also urge parties involved in the communal crisis to refrain from making unguarded statements so as not to fuel the crisis.

Signed

Mr. Okpare Theophilus Onojeghen
Secretary

Mr. Onitsha Ogaga Shedrack
Executive Member

News

I Can’t Feed My Family Again; I Make N20,000 Daily But Spend N17,000 On Fuel — Taxi Driver Laments

Published

47 seconds ago

September 20, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Despite earning N20,000 daily, Ajibaye says he takes home only N3,000 after fuel expenses, leaving him unable to cater to his children and wife.

A commercial driver identified as Wahab Ajibaye based in Ilorin, Kwara State has expressed frustration over the rising fuel prices, saying it has left him struggling to provide for his family.

Despite earning N20,000 daily, Ajibaye says he takes home only N3,000 after fuel expenses, leaving him unable to cater to his children and wife.

He said: “I am buying fuel for N1100 and I make N20,000 (daily) but I take only N3,000 with me to my house (after work). I am the owner of my car but I am no longer making enough to cater to my children and my wife. The All Progressives Congress (APC) government will not end well. Nigeria is becoming worse and we pray God takes away this set of current leaders.”

Ajibaye blamed the ruling APC government for the hardship faced by Nigerians, saying, “Their government is bringing more suffering. They’re not ashamed, despite many Nigerians cursing them. They should rethink.”

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had recently agreed that the policies initiated by President Bola Tinubu resulted in growing economic hardships in Nigeria.

The party in a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka had said this, while responding to a former national vice chairman (North West) of the party, Salihu Mohammed Lukman.

Recall that Lukman had berated the party for bad governance, adding that former President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have failed to deliver on their campaign promises.

Lukman, therefore, urged opposition leaders to unite and work hard to defeat the APC-led government in 2027.

But reacting, Morka in a statement on Tuesday argued that President Tinubu was taking bold measures to reset the country’s “long broken economy”, explaining that his reforms had increased economic hardship in the country.

News

LASG shuts down Idera market over ‘environmental pollution

Published

5 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) says it has sealed off the Idera market in the Oshodi metropolis.

In a statement on Thursday, Ajayi Lukman, LAGESC spokesperson, said the agency sealed the market due to unhygienic practices and indiscriminate dumping of refuse, which contravened the environmental law of the state.

He said the measure was taken to enforce adherence to environmental cleanliness across registered markets in the state.

‘‘Our operatives stationed across the Oshodi division during routine market monitoring identified the filth, unhygienic practices, and indiscriminate dumping of refuse around the Idera Market area, which prompted us to seal off the market until further notice,” the statement reads.

Lukman quoted Olaniyi Cole, the corps marshal of the agency, as decrying the level of hygiene at the market, which could lead to an outbreak of diseases.

He said Cole frowned at the inability of the market leadership to provide a valid waste collection contract, which resulted in the heaps of refuse in the facility.

He added that the display of wares for sale on road setbacks, lay-bys, medians, verges, kerbs, street trading, and hawking remained banned in the metropolis.

The LAGESC corps marshal reiterated the ban on the sales, distribution, and usage of styrofoam in the state, noting that anyone found culpable would be punished decisively.

News

Hours to Edo guber polls, major opposition candidate crumbles structure for Ighodalo

Published

5 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Hours to the Edo State governorship election, the guber candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP)Amb Osalumese Areloegbe on Thursday morning collapsed the structure for the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Osarodion Ogie Esq.

Addressing journalists at the party secretariat in Benin City, Areloegbe said his decision to collapse the structure for the PDP candidate was because he believed that Ighodalo had all it would take to govern the state to greater heights.

According to him, I urged all my followers and supporters to disregard any information that I have aligned with the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo.

“I am supporting Asue Ighodalo because he is competent, not that I am not competent but I believe Asue is on the forefront. That is my reason for supporting his candidacy.

“My party is aware because they have been having a series of negotiations for us to align with the APC, and I told them categorically that I am supporting PDP. My eighteen local government followers are in full support of my decision, I mean 100 per cent supporting the PDP candidate, Barr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Barr. Osarodion Ogie in this election.

“My choice for Asue Ighodalo is because, apart from myself, I see him as the next better candidate that I can support and I can put my weight on because he has the capacity, mentally, physically and otherwise to pilot the affairs of Edo State to greater heights.

“The national secretariat of my party, APP – they are in Abuja and I am in the state, and know much more of what is happening in Edo State. They are not here and don’t know what is going on here in Edo. And I am in a position to tell them what will be better for the Edo people.

“There is a parable that says, ‘You cannot shave a man’s head when he is not present’. I am here in Edo State and I know who to support and why I am supporting him. The national leadership might have taken a different tone, but this is what I and my followers have chosen.

“We had a series of other politicians who had made such decisions before. That is why I agreed with the support of my supporters to collapse my structure for the governorship candidate of the PDP Barr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Barr. Osarodion Ogie.”