A deeper and objective insight into the unfortunate tragedies visited on the people of Okuama-Ewu people in Delta State on January 27, 2024, allegedly by suspected militants from the neighbouring Okoloba community, and subsequently the killing of 17 army personnel on March 14 that triggered national outrage has become a necessity.
The aim of course, is for justice to be fully dispensed, and eventually engender restoration of peace. Doing so will also be in sync with the enforcement of the 1948 United Nations objective of global human rights legislation to enthrone the dignity of the human person, the right of private and family life, the choice of residence and of course, the right to own property.
These cardinal features of existing laws, as also supported by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) are what the traumatised residents of the embattled Okuama-Ewu community are currently clamouring for. That is predicated on the inter-communal crises between it and that of the neighbouring Okoloba people worsened on January 27, 2024.
In fact, the startling and terrifying tales reeled out by some eyewitnesses of the gory scenes of bloodletting in and around Okuama-Ewu evolve like some mind-boggling, riveting scenes from a midnight horror movie. But they have unfolded as truelife tragedies.
Going into the specifics, the war of attrition between the two communities in Delta State was triggered by the forceful takeover of the Erhurhore farmland, as well as Urhie Ewu (Ewu River) Okuama-Ewu and the threat to kill any of its indigenes found in the land. The threat was allegedly spearheaded by an unnamed Ijaw leader, who went further to the said river by establishing a diabolical shrine there and making animal sacrifices. Yet, he reportedly treated the caution by the leaders of Okuama-Ewu with utter disdain. And to put a vicious bite to his threat his militants arrived in gunboats and invaded the community on January 27, 2024, chanting war songs, shooting sporadically, leading to the residents fleeing for their lives into the forests.
Worse still, some of their fellow Okuama-Ewu people returning from Okwagbe market were assaulted and so mercilessly beaten that they sustained various degrees of injuries. So serious it was that they had to be rushed to Otu- Jeremi General Hospital for treatment. That was after making a report at the town’s Divisional Police Headquarters.
In all of these avoidable mishaps, there are troubling questions literally begging for credible answers. Why, for instance, that after the visit of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State to the embattled communities, and even after the signing of the peace accord between their leaders on February 7, 2024 the interventions could not stop the breakdown of law and order? Also troubling is the fact that some of the actors in the heart-rending killing spree of innocent citizens are enjoying an obnoxious level of impunity. Who are those masterminds in the corridor of political power aiding and abetting the wasting of human life and seemingly getting away with it, scot-free?
That has been the recurring challenge exacerbating the dispensation of justice in Nigeria. Nonetheless, while concerned Nigerians await the outcome of the N200 billion Suit FHC/WR/CS 41/2024 instituted by the leaders of Okuama-Ewu community through their lawyer, Innocent Ejedegba before Honourable Justice I. M. Sani against the Nigerian military for invading the community and indicting them for killing 17 soldiers, justice must not be compromised. And that is because the soldiers unleashed mayhem while maiming and brutalising innocent citizens, demolishing homes and valuable property, without police investigation.
Going forward, no stone should be left unturned until justice is served.Meanwhile, we hereby call for full support for the Board of Inquiry constituted to investigate the March 14 killing of 17 soldiers, and a similar probing by the military to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the intercommunal catastrophe.
While the processes go on uninhibited there should be meaningful efforts put in place for the rehabilitation, financial empowerment for employment and reintegration of the victims who have been hiding in the forests all this while.
But at the end of it all, all hands must be on deck to fish out the perpetrators of evil and bring them to speedy justice, no matter how highly placed such people might be. That will eventually serve as a form of strong deterrence to those who erroneously believe that they are above the law of the land.
