Okuama counters Okoloba’s ownership claim of disputed land
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The people of the Okuama community in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State have faulted the recent claim by their neighbouring Okoloba community, in the Bomadi Local Government Area, over the boundary lines between the two communities.
According to the Okuama community, the Okoloba community only resorted to a false publication and invented what it termed concocted lies about the origin of the Okuama community, adding that it had verifiable proof to counter the claims.
There had been communal clashes between the two communities before the eventual killing of 17 soldiers during a peace move, a development that made the military raid the Okuama community and left it in ruins.
Following the ruination of the community, the state government relocated the residents to an internally displaced persons camp at Ewu Kingdom and promised to rebuild the town and resettle the residents.
The announcement was kicked against by the Okoloba Federated Community, through its Chairman, Mr Clement Koki, as he described the Okuama indigenes as “strangers” in the troubled locality.
He said, “They (Okuama) have no basis claiming any land in the first instance because they never owned one, and that they should vacate all that land which they have craftily and aggressively grabbed.”
The Okuama community, miffed by the development, described the pronouncement from Koki as “an affront and a bizarre commentary borne out of ignorance.”
In a statement on Saturday by its Secretary-General, Mr Bernard Esegba, Okuama community added that the Okoloba Federated Community, through its position paper, “is treading the hostility and warring path as against our (Okuama) leniency and unquestionable peaceful disposition.”
The statement said the Okuama community “is loaded with verifiable proofs to shame them and discredit whatever concocted, baseless and unverifiable claims they are sticking to.”
It maintained that the community was peace-loving and “have been toeing the path of peace, despite the belligerent disposition of the Okoloba people.”
It added, “Following the ensuing conflict between the communities, the peace accord initiated by the Delta State government has been diligently obeyed to the letter by the Okuama people, but still, the Okoloba people have continued to perpetrate hostility with impunity.”
The statement then advised the Okoloba Federated Community “not to truncate the effort being made by the Delta State government and other relevant institutions to resettle the displaced people of the Okuama community, in the wake of the atrocious invasion of the community by the army in a Gestapo manner that resulted in the demolition of the community, killing of innocent Okuama indigenes, including women, children, aged, sick and pregnant women.”
It advised the public to “jettison the lies being spewed on the pages of newspapers and online newspaper outlets by the Okoloba leadership,” noting that “diligent and lawful steps are being taken by the Okuama people to cause the Okoloba people to submit to untainted truth and kowtow to the supremacy of the laws of the land.”
The statement read: “Again, our attention has been drawn to another round of concocted tales and mischievous lies being peddled by an undignified fellow known as Mr Clement Koki, who sanctimoniously parades himself as the chairman of Okoloba community, Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State.
“He had ignominiously stated in the said publication that Okuama people are ‘strangers’ in their ancestral home, situated along Forcados River, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.
“Ordinarily, the unfounded and mischievous publication by Mr Koki is undeserving of our reply, but as responsible and enlightened people, who understand the potential harm misinformation does to the psyche of the public, we deem it very important to correct the fictitious claims and distorted information he had fed the public with to attract cheap recognition.
“In the said publication, Mr Koki said that the only land boundary Okoloba had was with Ewu Urhobo in Ughelli South and that the Okuama people were farmers from Ewu Urhobo who came for settlement as farmers and paid annual rent and other royalties to Okoloba, an Ijaw community.
“We consider this statement as an affront and a bizarre commentary by a fellow who is roundly ignorant, uninformed and lacks the full knowledge of the origin of Okoloba people and their historical relics that define their ancestral homeland.”
It warned Koki and others to desist from spewing false statements about the origin of the Okuama people.
“On that note, we sternly admonish Mr Koki and his cohort of faceless sponsors to desist from spewing unedited false statements about the origin of the Okuama people in a devious ploy to twist established truths and misinform the public.
“We, therefore, advise Mr Koki that, rather than dissipating his energy in such vain hallucinations akin to his lineage, he should’ve better preoccupy himself with a thorough investigation and fact-based findings about the true origin of the Okuama people of Ewu Urhobo Kingdom, as such facts are verifiable and retrievable from various archives already in public space and making a good read for serious and progressive minds across Delta State and even among members of the aboriginal Okoloba community.
