Okuama Massacre: It’s sad and unfortunate occurrence, Hence, condemnable – Omavuaye

President General of Otokutu Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area, Chief Peter Omavuaye Police, has condemned in strong term the gruesome killings of innocent souls in Okuama Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

Omavuaye asserted that a communal crisis between two communities; Okuama and Okoloba both in Ughelli South and Bomadi local government areas of Delta State, over a land dispute wouldn’t have been allowed to cause such an unhealthy and a bariatric killings of innocent souls and destruction of homes and properties.

However, the involvement of the Nigerian military personnel to engage the embattled communities over a land dispute, shouldn’t have been allowed also, because soldiers are for conventional war and not communal crisis, rather they would have involved the police for a more strategic and peaceful engagement between the two communities, he said.

Most worrisome is that, the military personnel went on a peace mission to resolve the crisis but without the Delta State government, traditional rulers and the stakeholders involvement which later geberated a lot of questions and concerns. At the process, seventeen (17) military officers were allegedly killed.

Another untold tale of the incidence is that, the killers of the soldiers also collected arms and ammunition of the Nigerian Army found in the possession of the assessinnated soldiers, a development that no security agency would play game with until those materials are retrieved.

I know the above reaction led to the burning down of Okuama community where thousands of homes and properties were destroyed, and thousands of people, most especially children and pregnant women were displayed as at the time of this press.

As a community leader and a peace ambassador, I urge the state and the federal government to hasty up plans to resettle the Okuama people from their displayed areas, even as the government has engaged with both stakeholders from the Nigerian Army, the traditional rulers, Okuama and Okoloba community respectively to finding lasting peace between the two communities, because peace is a panacea; without peace no society can develop.

Going forward, I want the federal and state government of Delta, to henceforth disengage military presence in any communal crisis, noting that this is what happened in Udi of Bayelsa State, till date that scar is there. So we should be careful while engaging community security issues, because it’s always fragile to break out.

Meanwhile, I thank and commend all the stakeholders who swiftly come to intervene in one way or the other, most especially the Delta State Governor, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for their brilliance, wisdom and courage to ensure no further wounds and scores are recorded.

I also want to thank the men of Nigerian police force, traditional rulers, Community Youth Presidents, especially the UPU Youth Wing President, Comrade Blessed Ughere, for his timeless doggedness and commitment to Urhobo nation peace and development. May God bless you all, he added.