Delta: Peace efforts in Okuama/Okoloba crisis suffer setback

Efforts to resolve the conflict between Okuama and Okoloba communities by the government have suffered a setback as Okoloba community insists that the Okuama community does not have any historical connection to the land they occupy but were settlers who were allowed to operate fishing settlements years ago.

Most of the displaced Okuama residents are currently in a government-established internally displaced persons camp at Ewu, in Ughelli South council, Delta State, as most of their houses were destroyed during the occupation of the community by soldiers.

The occupation had followed the killing of 17 soldiers and several civilians in the area.

On Tuesday, the Chairman of Okoloba Federated Community, Mr. Clement Koki, said the community was compelled to respond to what he described as “orchestrated campaigns of calumny by some misguided persons’ ‘ in connection with the Okoloba/Okuama crisis.

In a statement, titled “Okuama: The Okoloba Story,” he condemned the killing of the 17 officers and soldiers in the most gruesome manner in Okuama.

He equally empathised with those within the Okuama axis for the temporary inconveniences occasioned by the security measures put in place to forestall a spiral effect of the crisis and also to de-escalate tension.

Koki said the Okoloba people are peace-loving, law-abiding, hospitable people whose primary occupation is fishing and farming, and that they have been co-existing with all their Mein Ijaw brothers peacefully from time immemorial.

He stated that the Okuama people, on the other hand, are strangers from Ewu Kingdom in Ughelli South Local Council of Delta State.

“They are farmers who came seeking safe havens and were given some portions of land by Akugbene community (with whom we maintain direct ancestral boundaries on the Southern flank) to farm and fish. However, no sooner had they secured the portions of land for fishing and farming given to them by their benefactors that the Okuama strangers embarked on a wild and reckless ambition of land-grabbing and territorial expansion, as was aptly predicted by P. V. Main (A. D. O) in page 56, paragraph 284 of his ‘Assessment Intelligence Report’ of the Commission of Inquiry, under the heading ‘Sobo Invasion.’ P. V. Main had predicted that stranger Sobo (Urhobo) communities might one day claim ownership of land belonging to the Mein (Ijo).

“This land-grabbing disposition the Okuama started by encroaching on the land of their benefactors (Akugbene), straying beyond the portions given to them, and that set them on a warpath with the Akugbene who accommodated them when they needed shelter, resulting in a series of altercations culminating in lawsuits that led to the 1945 judgement in favour of Akugbene: a fulfilment of P. V. Main’s prophecy,” Koki said.

He said Okuama people accepted their stranger/settler status and were paying certain minimum rents to Okoloba for farming and fishing on their lands and fishing lakes for which there is evidence!

Koki said the cause of the intermittent conflicts between Okoloba and Okuama had been due to the resistance by Okoloba people towards the crafty and aggressive land-grabbing and territorial expansionist moves of the Okuama people, which came to the fore no sooner than they set foot on the land given to them by Akugbene people specifically for fishing and farming.

Okoloba community listed several instances of provocations by Okuama community, including preventing Okoloba from building a secondary school on their land in 2014, kidnapping and capturing defenceless Okoloba indigenes, and attacking Okoloba community several times with armed mercenaries.

The chairman of Okoloba said they support the government’s efforts to resolve the long-standing impasse but warned that the root cause of the dispute must be explored exhaustively because that is the only sure bet to lasting peace.