*‘There Will Be No More Attacks On Villages’
DELTA State Governor, Chief Sheriff Oborevwori, while acknowledging that the two feuding communities- Okoloba and Okuama- have been having issues for years and were actually invited by the state government on February 7, this year, where their leaders, members representing the two local governments and council chairmen agreed to work together and even signed a peace accord, nobody imagined that the crisis could degenerate to the killing of 17 soldiers in Okuama on Thursday, March 14.
Speaking to State House Correspondents shortly after a closed-door meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, March 19, over the killing of military personnel on a “peacekeeping mission” in Okuoma community in Ughelli South Local Council of the state, Oborevwori said the situation was under control, assuring that there would be no further attacks.
He said: “We condemned the killing of the officers and soldiers, because they were there on peace mission. What is happening now is something that we did not bargained for.
“I want to assure everybody that there would be no more attack on the villages. If there is anyone that had happened in the past, there would be no more attack. We know that those who are culpable will be brought to book; the innocent citizens will not be attacked.
“Yesterday (Monday, March 18), I was in Bomadi for security meeting to get full briefing. Some of those issues are security issues that you can’t say publicly, so we are managing the situation.
“The issues of whether a place has been burnt down or people have been killed, it has happened and what we want is the way forward.
Oborevwori reiterated that the state government and military authorities have agreed that no innocent citizens would suffer as a result of the killing, lamenting that the soldiers’ murder has further exacerbated the feud between the two warring communities.
He said a meeting between the state government and traditional leaders would be held next week to find a quick resolution to the issue on ground.
“The way forward is two ways. For the people that have been killed, the officers and soldiers, we must see how we can find succour for their families and how they can be given a befitting burial
“Then for the community, anything that has happened in the past will not happen again.”
“Mr. President assured me that he was in support of peace and we both condemned the killing of the officers and the soldiers who were on peace mission.
Residents of the troubled community, while condemning the killing of the soldiers, however, blamed the military for events leading to the incident.
Two of them, who spoke with the Delta State radio and television in Warri, on condition of anonymity, accused the military of carrying out mass killings.
They recalled that the soldiers, who had visited their community on March 14 for what they had tagged ‘a peacekeeping mission,’ were received in the town hall, but later insisted on taking away the community chiefs , a move the community resisted.
They residents claimed that in the process, the soldiers “started shooting our people there. The soldiers killed many of the young people there. People started running; some were killed instantly. Nobody expected any shooting.
“The Army went and came back with more reinforcement. About 20 more people were killed immediately.”
Another resident, a woman, added: “While the community rebuffed the soldiers from whisking away the community chairman, the Army just changed all of a sudden and opened fire on us.
“Women and children died. We cannot find some of our children and our parents. They (the soldiers) killed over 20 of our fellow residents.
“Some of our buildings were razed. Many residents have fled and there are even dead bodies in the bush where we have been hiding. We want the government to come to our rescue.”
Meanwhile, military siege on the community by operatives of the military Joint Task Force (JTF) in the aftermath of the killings continues, with the few residents still holed up there reportedly complaining of starvation, as they no longer have access their farms or outside world.
