OKUAMA: WHEN A NATION TERRORIZES HER CITIZENS

By Sunny Awhefeada
August 22, 2025

Before bursting into global con­sciousness, Okuama was a small agrarian community nestled on the bank of the Forcados, one of the many rivers that sustain the wetland character of the Niger Delta. As an Urhobo community, it occupies a place of fondness as the home of the first Urhobo and first African Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Benin, Bishop Agori Iwe. Okuama was never associated with violence or any oth­er act of infamy, the kind of which shot it into global reckoning in March 2024. The Okuama people belong to the Ewu stock of the Urhobo. The water that runs through Okuama also flows in a lumbering man­ner through Okwagbe where Bishop Ajayi Crowther’s crew berthed in 1854 before sailing towards Onitsha where he eventu­ally anchored and established the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Was it not pos­sible that Bishop Crowther also reached Okuama and in the fullness of time Okua­ma produced the first African to be Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Benin? It was possible. Okuama was and is still dear to the Urhobo people despite being tucked away in the periphery of the vast land and waterscape that define Urhobo geography. Okuama is somnolent and the razzmatazz which defines contemporary experience is unknown to the community. The inhabi­tants are largely subsistent farmers and fishermen who cherish their untroubled, innocent and bucolic lives.

I visited Okuama in 2011, in company of colleagues, to pay final respect to Pro­fessor Michael Pender Adogbo, who was instrumental to my stability in my subal­tern days as a university don. Roads do not lead to Okuama. The only means of getting there was by boat. There were neither cars nor modern buildings. The long river bank was strewn with boats bearing nets, fish cones and other harmless appurtenances of primordial existence. Most of the build­ings were built of clay with brown rusty corrugated roofs sitting clumsily on them. We saw the town hall which was actually ramshackle. We saw the primary school which was a creaking enclosure. We saw the church, an Anglican Church, ostensi­bly there due to Bishop Iwe’s influence. Urhobo people frequently reference Okua­ma as the home of Bishop Agori Iwe and not as an enclave of violence.

Okuama’s narrative changed one fateful day in March 2024. The world was woken up to the story that seventeen Nigerian soldiers were killed in Okuama! Before one could say “how”? Some Nigerian soldiers, the enforcers of state terrorism stormed Okuama and razed down the community. The scale of the bombardment was in­tended to wipe out Okuama. At the end of the expedition, which was reminiscent of the Benin Massacre of 1897, only the Anglican Church building was standing. Okuama became a wasteland in rubbles with no human presence. Those who know Okuama were shocked and picked holes in the military’s narrative that Okuama indigenes killed the seventeen soldiers. As the community was smoldering, the Nigerian Army and not the Nigeria Police declared some leaders of Okuama, who do not even live there, wanted. The monarch was among those declared wanted. The entire scenario sparked a helpless outrage. Discerning persons decried the invasion by the soldiers and raised alarm over the humanitarian crisis the situation was be­coming. The Okuama people were chased into dense and forbidden forests without food, water or shelter where they lived among reptiles and wild animals in the cold and rain. The Delta State government was to set up a camp to cater for the dis­placed people. The rampaging soldiers ran roughshod over Urhobo villages abutting Okuama.

The Urhobo people in unison con­demned the killing of the seventeen sol­diers and mourned with their families, the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian state. They made the point unambiguous­ly clear that the Urhobo have never been associated with violence in the Nigerian state. Urhobo sons fought gallantly to keep Nigeria one during the civil war and but for the discretionary wisdom of one of her sons, General David Ejoor, Nigeria’s unity would have gone with that war. It is difficult to find any Urhobo family whose son didn’t fight in the war to keep Nigeria one. These verifiable claims cut no ice with Nigerian soldiers. They did not bother to do background check on Okuama and the Urhobo people before the scorched earth operation.

What ought to have been reprieve to Okuama immediately after the killing of the seventeen soldiers came from the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa. He told a mourning nation that the military knew the killers of the soldiers. He mentioned a name and a community. Musa’s mouth uttered Amagbein and Ug­bomoturu! So, the people of Okuama and the larger Urhobo entity thought the heat would be off. But, no! The soldiers’ siege did not end. If the Chief of Defence Staff pointed at Amagbein as the mastermind of the dastardly act and Ugbomoturu as his domain, why bombard Okuama? Why have the soldiers not apprehended Amag­bein more than one year after the heinous incident? The death of the soldiers was not just about their death, it was also an affront and assault on the Nigerian state. The Urhobo people appreciated this fact and said that much. But some Nigerian sol­diers who have become enablers of state terrorism unleashed mayhem on Okuama people. This has been part of the deliber­ate and calculated attempt to oppress the Urhobo.

One year after, Okuama is still in ruins. Its leaders arrested by soldiers are still un­der military incarceration in a condition that is probably subhuman. Although the monarch was released last year, the act of detaining him was “egha” an abomina­tion that the Nigerian state must expiate. One of those incarcerated died in military custody. Among those being held by the sol­diers is Professor Arthur Ekpekpo, a dis­tinguished professor of Physics and for­mer Dean of a Science faculty. His eldest daughter who couldn’t come to terms with the endless incarceration of her doting father died some weeks ago. The point has been made for the umpteenth time that sol­diers have no powers to arrest and detain civilians. Only the police can. Calls have been made for the detainees to be trans­ferred to the police who should investigate and prosecute them in a competent court of law if findings point at their culpability. The soldiers have so far refused to obey the laws of Nigeria.

In March this year, as part of remem­bering the incident and drawing attention to the Okuama tragedy and the fate of her people, a representative of the World Council of Urhobo Professors asked for the release of the detained elders and re­quested for the setting up of a commission of inquiry. The Council also demanded the rebuilding of Okuama, the establish­ment of a university of wetland studies and the payment of a compensation of one hundred and fifty billion naira to the Okuama people. Despite these calls, the elders arrested exactly one year ago are still being held incommunicado. These are not soldiers, but civilians. They should be released in line with the laws of Nigeria. What happened to Okuama was the use of unjustified and unconscionable violence. And since it was enacted by some soldiers who are agents of state violence the act thus became state violence not just against Okuama, but against the Urhobo nation.

A country is sometimes fondly referred to as “her” to signify it as mother. This es­sence is captured in our anthem referring to Nigeria as “sovereign motherland”. But has the Nigerian state played the mother to her citizens? The Nigerian state using her soldiers destroyed Ugep, Kalakuta Repub­lic, Bakolori, Ogoni, Odi, Zaki-Biam and now Okuama. How will citizens, especially the people of Okuama look at Nigeria? Is it as a mother who destroys her own and who should be dragged to the Internation­al Criminal Court? Nigeria has terrorized and traumatized Okuama enough. Let re­prieve come. A nation should not terrorize her citizens!