Behold! The Remains Of Troops-Ravaged Okuama Community In Delta 

FOR 51 days or thereabout, the riverine community of Okuama-Ewu of the Urhobo stock in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State was under the firm grip and forceful occupation of fierce-looking, no-nonsense, battle-ready Nigerian soldiers. The mission was to avenge the brutal and cruel assassination of 17 officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army said to be on a purported peace-keeping mission to Okuama. Okuama has been embroiled in a fearsome land dispute with Okoloba community, an Ijaw enclave with whom there have been several intermarriages.

Shortly after the soldiers pulled out of the land albeit unannounced, our reporter reliably gathered that some criminally-minded individuals from neighbouring communities of Okoloba and Akugbene in Bomadi Local Government Area had rushed to loot some valuables from the wasteland of Okuama. Items of interest to the looters were iron rods from rubble of residential houses, electrical cables, solar panels, handy household items and what have you. They were also alleged to have begun to harvest the exiled folks’ crops such as cassava, pepper, and potatoes among others. So, in less than 24 hours after the news filtered out that the soldiers had withdrawn, a fresh bloodbath had erupted as already wounded Okuama youths and women, who hastily returned from their hiding places to the wasteland, met the looters at work and engaged them in a fierce battle. This led to a fresh bloodbath that reportedly left one person killed and a few others fatally macheted.

Speaking on the attack, a former chairman of Akugbene, a neighbouring Ijaw community, who pleaded anonymity, denied the looting narrative, explaining that: “We were surprised to see the soldiers pulled out on Tuesday (May 7) and some indigenes of Okuama immediately went back to the community.

“We believed some soldiers, who are of Urhobo descent at Okuama, must have passed prior information to them of their plan to pull out.

“We have some respite now as we were like in a cage, not moving out to neighbouring communities at the Okuama direction where we go and buy most of our foodstuffs and household materials, particularly at the Okuagbe market.

“But, as I’m talking to you, there is a problem; three indigenes of our community have already been ambushed and attacked with machetes by Okuama returnees.

“They were on their way to Ezebiri community along the footpath linking various communities on hearing that the road is free.

“One of them, who escaped back to our community with machete cuts, narrated that they were attacked by the Okuama returnees at gunpoint while on their way to Ezebiri.

“They attacked them with machetes when he managed to escape, while others were led towards the jetty at the community waterfront.

“The victim is in a critical condition with us right here at the primary healthcare centre,” he claimed.”

However, an indigene of another neighbouring community, who declined being identified, said:

“On the Akugbene and Okuama returnees news, those youths went to Okuama to loot upon hearing that soldiers had left the community.

“Armed youths of Okuama accosted and shot at them and some are said to have been cut with machetes.”

During the tragedy that befell the 17 soldiers near Okuama, journalists, and in fact, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori as well as head of the Delta State Police Command were barred outright from the community. It was declared a war zone by the military. At a particular visit, Oborevwori ended his trip at Bomadi where an army formation is situated. However, feelers from locals had revealed that beside armour tanks and other military hardware that were swiftly deployed to Okuama after the gruesome killing of the army personnel, earth movers such as swarm buggies were deployed to level the entire community. This act was encouraged by the viral narrative that killers of the soldiers on the purported peace mission were nobody else, but armed youths from Okuama. This has yet to be proven as true so far, but the deed is already done – Okuama is in ruins.

During a privileged visit to Okuama by some journalists last week, the atmosphere, on approaching the community, a somewhat island sandwiched between Okoloba and Akugbene – both Ijaw communities – was that of putrefying ruins, pain and anguish. Seven churches, community town hall, school buildings, a health centre and all residential buildings were levelled. It was gathered that many more corpses are still being discovered daily in and around the community.

Famished returning folks were seen taking shelter in the only standing Anglican Church building where they battle with mosquitoes and dangerous reptiles at night. Rubble of once cozy residential buildings litter the wasteland. Economic trees, except for one or two coconut trees standing, were not spared. No domestic animal could be sighted. Not even a cat! Panels and poles of solar street lights were felled and vandalised. An electricity transformer supplying the community light had been vandalised and carted away.

A few electric poles with high-tension cables were seen still standing. In some cases, shrubs have taken over the streets and levelled buildings. There is a complete absence of life and living in Okuama, the latest wasteland courtesy of the Nigerian Army.

Meanwhile, as some Okuama folks are returning to their ruined ancestral home to pick up the pieces of their lives, the Delta State government has set up an internally displaced persons camp at Ewu in Ughelli South Local Government Area. But this development hasn’t gone down well with the returnees who are insisting that the camp should be sited on the Okuama ruins rather than another community. As a result, the IDP camp is reportedly abhored such that Governor Oborevwori, who was billed to pay a visit to the camp last Saturday, later shelved the idea.

One of the distraught youths, Ogheneohuko Okota, who spoke to our correspondent, while atop the rubble of his house, bemoaned the situation at Okuama, but insisted that survival elsewhere, albeit temporarily, was impossible for them as they’re glued to their ancestral home.

“We can’t survive easily elsewhere. We prefer to stay in our own ancestral land to going to the IDP camp at Ewu. The government should relocate the IDP camp to Okuama so that we can feel at home.

“We want to plead with the government to set up the IDP camp here in Okuama. We’d be more comfortable here in Okuama than going to Ewu.

“We have a river here which we drink, cook and bathe from. We live in the only church that was not destroyed by the military.

“To sleep, we’re managing some mosquito nets that the soldiers left behind after withdrawing from Okuama.

“For those of us that have returned to Okuama, we cook collectively. When we returned, we met some fishing nets that were not destroyed. So, most times we go fishing which we use for cooking.

“The government should not see our refusal to go to Ewu IDP camp as disobedience. We have enough land here. If the government wants to rebuild the community, we can stay on one side of the land while they build on the other side of the expanse of land,” he noted.

Another returnee, Madam Yellow Degbe, who has obviously returned to her farm as she was armed with her farm implements inside the Anglican Church, expressed adamance in resorting to the IDP camp.

“It’s God that helped us, if not all of us would have been dead today. They’ve destroyed all our houses, including mine. There’s no place to stay on our return.

“We’ve been living in the bush. We’ve been suffering. No shelter, no food, no money, nothing. All we had before had been burnt and destroyed.

“The attire on me is the only cloth I have left. I don’t possess anything anyone can boast of having in life. I’m left with nothing, empty.

“We’re not going to Ewu IDP camp where they claim to have provided us with evening. If they want to camp us, they should come to Okuama to build the camp and not in another place. None of us will go to the Ewu IDP camp. If they build the camp here, all our exiled indigenes will return home.

“I have crops especially cassava that I want to harvest very soon. How would I be coming from Ewu to work at Okuama? If the governor really wants to help us, he should come and build the camp here as well as rebuild our houses. Okuama people will not go to Ewu. But even if they want to go, I won’t go. I have nothing to take from Ewu. But here, I have something.

“We get our water to drink, cook and wash from the river here. There’s nowhere here to buy anything. We sleep on the floor of the only church standing. No mosquito net,” she disclosed.

Chairman of Okuama indigenes in Warri, Mr Emmanuel Okrika, who spoke to our correspondent while inspecting the rubble of his house, lamented the wanton destruction of his property and those of other whose mainstay was subsistence farming.

“I’m standing on the rubble of my own house. The house I spent 35  years of my life to build. All my sweat as a civil servant has been turned to rubble.

“I had a little guest house in my compound too, they’ve all gone. This is terrible. I don’t know what to do (sobs). What’s the meaning of all these? It’s too much for me to bear. And somebody will be telling me to go to one IDP camp at Ewu?

“You know what it means to build a house in the creeks? I collected all the cooperatives available to build it. Everything in my buildings – electronics, name them – are all gone! They’ve destroyed what I retired to for survival.

“Let the governor know that this is nothing but oppression. This is strange in Urhobo land. What’s UPU doing? What’s our governor doing? We’re dying; we’re ruined! They should come and help us,” he agonised amid intermittent sobs as he stared at the ruins of his property.

Women from Okuama neighbours – Okoloba and Akugbene communities – have staged separate protests to reel out their grievances a few days after the exit of soldiers from Okuama. Recall some alleged looters were caught in Okuama by returnees leading to a mild bloodbath shortly after the soldiers pulled out.

Distraught women of Okuama-Ewu, who were armed with leaves protested in the community, last Monday, accusing Okoloba women of criminally harvesting cassava, potatoes, and pepper from their farms.

They, during the protest, also accused Okoloba youths of laying siege on the waterways with arms, awaiting their return, as well as spying on them with drones, calling on President Bola Tinubu and Governor Oborevowri to wade in.

One of the protesters alleged, “They stole our foams, boats, and other property and sold them before we returned on May 8. But today (Monday), we caught them digging our cassava, and they ran away.

“On Sunday, armed youths of Okoloba blocked us with guns on the waterways, we had to take another route to come to Okuama. Our community is an island, we come through Okwagbe on the waterways, and you will first get to Okoloba before Okuama, and they blocked us with guns on Sunday.”

Another woman protester, alleged: “When we got to our farms this morning (Monday), we found that Okoloba and Akugbene women were harvesting our cassava. When we earlier cried out that, they were stealing our cassava, people thought we were raising a false alarm, you can see it now.”

Preceding the Okuama women protest was an earlier one on Saturday by placard-wielding women of Okolaba, led by the Chairlady of the community, Mrs. Timipakebi Godwin, and Secretary, Mrs. Mary Koibi, who asked the government to phase out the Okuama community, outright. Placards with varying inscriptions did suggest that indigenes of Okuama are not only savage, but should be barred completely from returning to their ancestral land.

Some of the placards read: “Okuama people are tenants to Ijaws in Bomadi LGA,” “We say ‘No to violence, enough of the killings on our land,’ “armed Okuama youths returning in a commando style,” “we say ‘No’ to the return of armed youths of Okuama,” “Resettle Okuama people among their Ewu brothers in Ughelli South LGA,” and “we mourn the killing of the 17 soldiers,” among others.

The chairlady of Okoloba, Mrs Goodwin, read to journalists a written address which she claimed had already been made available to security agencies and the local government authorities. She noted that the alleged latest killing by the youths of Okuama showed that they could kill human beings at the slightest provocation.

“First, we the women of Okoloba community sympathize with the killing of 17 soldiers and officers of the Nigerian army on peace and rescue mission to Okuama, following the kidnap of our son.

“We sincerely mourn their untimely deaths and pray for the repose of their souls. We also pray for their families.

“However, less than 24 hours after the exit of the troops from Okuama, a fresh crisis erupted with another neighbouring community, culminating in the killing of one person while three other persons were seriously injured.

“The person, who was killed and those who sustained machete wounds, were alleged to have gone there to loot.

“The latest killing showed that the people of Okuama can kill a human at the slightest provocation; the sanctity of human life means nothing to them.

“It also shows that neighbouring Ijaw communities like Okoloba are not safe.

“So, resettling the people of Okuama in their present location, which is in-between communities in Bomadi Local Government Area, is an attempt to encourage further communal clashes and bloodbaths.

“Just last week, youths of the Okuama community came out of the Mein-toruabubor creek, which leads to Ewu, on three speedboats and all of them on camouflage.

“They shot sporadically in the air before proceeding to OKuama. They moved to and from the creek three times, and at every time, they shot in the air at the entrance of the creek.

“We are calling on the Federal Government to come to our aid, and the panacea to these incessant clashes and killings is for the government to relocate Okuama to Ewu clan in Ughelli South Local Government Area, where they truly and rightly belong.

“Resettling them among their own people in Ewu clan of Urhobo land will foster mutual trust among themselves as they are of the same ancestry and speak the same dialect,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, president-general of Okuama community, Mr James Akata, who was reached via his mobile phone by our correspondent on Saturday, refuted the claim that Okuama youths had returned to the land with arms to destroy.

“Before the coming of one Ijaw man, Patrick Akpobolokemi, to Okuama, we’ve been living at peace with Okoloba people; we’re even intermarried.

“Shortly after the soldiers pulled out of Okuama last week, Okoloba boys invaded the ruins and began to loot iron rods and what have you from the ruins of people’s sweat. Isn’t it salt upon injury? Looting from a destroyed community? No empathy for the people’s plight?

“On returning, Okuama youths met Okoloba boys looting their ruins. For people who met all their life struggles in ruins, it’s just natural for them to vent their anger on the looters.

“Please, do know that Okoloba people have the grand plan to deroot Okuama people from their ancestral home. That’s what one of the leaders there said after soldiers occupied the land.

“The Federal Government and state government should do everything possible to change the narrative and thwart the plan of the Okolobas.

“We have suffered enough destruction already. All our buildings and property in them were destroyed. Some of us are still on exile because there’s nothing left to return to.

“In fact, is it not even dangerous for us to return home without the government providing any form of security for the returnees?

“Okuama indigenes are peaceful people. We’re brothers to put neighbours. Planning to deroot us completely from our ancestral lands should not be allowed to materialise,” he pleaded.

While tension appears to be building up between the two Ijaw communities of Okoloba and Akugbene against Okuama-Ewu of Urhobo stock, which is in ruins, a recent official letter dated May 6 and signed by two leaders of Okuama community – Emmanuel Okrika and Victor Akemor, which was addressed to the Senator representing Delta South Senatorial District, Chief Ede Dafinone, disclosed that on January 27, 2024, three indigenes of the community were killed over the land dispute between Okuama and Okoloba.

Between March 14 and 15 when the 17 personnel were murdered and soldiers attacked Okuama, the Okuama leaders further stated that 101 men, women, and children of the community lost their lives. They said out of the 101 murdered souls, 15 died in the forest where they fled when soldiers invaded Okuama.

Meanwhile, indigenes and sympathisers of ruined Okuama community have hired a team of lawyers to plead their case against the Federal Government and the Nigerian Army at the Federal High Court sitting in Warri, and on May 2, the court, after the mentioning of the case before the presiding judge, Justice Sani, adjourned till June 4, 2024 for hearing.

The suits included the following: FHC/WR/CS/41/2024 and FHC/WR/CS/42/2024 and another filed by an Non Governmemtal Organisation. Suit FHC/WR/CS/41/2024 had Victor Akemor and 16 others as Applicants with the Nigerian Army as the Respondent.

Similarly, Suit FHC/WR/CS/42/2024 had Prof. Arthur Ekpekpo, Mr Bernard Esegba and Mr James Oghohoko as Applicants while the Federal Government, the Chief of Defence Staff and others as Respondents.

In Suit FHC/WR/CS/41/2024, the Applicants, through their lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo in their application, sought the order of the Court for 15 prayers which include “an award of one billion Naira against the Respondent as “Exemplary Damage” in favour of the Okuama community.

Amid the accusations and counter accusations between Okoloba and Okuama communities, the government of Sheriff Oborevwori, in the wake of the withdrawal of troops from Okuama on May 8, had promised to facilitate the process of returning Okuama people to their ancestral land.

Recalcitrant returnees of Okuama, who are insisting on not considering the IDP camp at Ewu set up by the government to “serve as a transition to aid their rehabilitation,” may need to be prevailed on to align with the governor’s commitment to rebuild the devastated Okuama in the spirit of inclusivity, peace, security and wellbeing of the people.