Man Killed Over Land Dispute In Delta Communities

A young man, Mr. Pigha Zipamone of Okoloba community, Delta State, has been allegedly killed by armed Okuama youths over the lingering land dispute between the two communities.

Tension is currently brewing in the creeks of River Forcados in Bomadi and Ughelli South local government areas of the state due to the incident.

The victim was reportedly ambushed, killed and drowned by the armed Okuama youths.

The decomposing corpse of the victim was brought to Bomadi, the council headquarters, weekend, generated tension with hate speeches among youths.

Addressing newsmen shortly after handing over the corpse of the victim to men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, Bomadi Division, the chairman of Okoloba federated community, Mr Clement Koki, said the late Zipamone went to work at his mother’s farm when the fateful incident occurred.

Koki said: “On 5th March, 2024, Mr. Pigha Zipamone went to work in his mother’s farm and was kidnapped by Okuama blood-letting savages and hired mercenaries who have been laying ambush day and night to attack us. He was taken to Okuama community, beaten mercilessly with hands tied behind his back on daily basis in the village square and eventually killed him on 8th March, 2024.

“His lifeless body was thrown into River Forcados in the early hours of March 9, 2024. This was in keeping with their earlier promise, that they were going to attack Okoloba and carry mass murder, having stockpiled arms and ammunition of different calibre, as well as imported mercenaries from different villages in Ewu kingdom.

“Recall that the people of Okuama hired mercenaries and attacked us on January 27, 2024 in a speedboat with different types of arms and ammunition and were promptly repelled by our youth. On realizing that they were being over-powered, they escaped to the overside forest across Okoloba, abandoning their speedboat with a cache of arms and ammunition, which were handed over to the Divisional Police Officer, Bomadi Police Station.

“As a result of the build up of tension and hostilities, the state government invited both communities to Asaba for a peace parley and we signed the Peace Accord and were charged to go back home and maintain peace in our respective domains.

“But suffice it to say, that no sooner than both parties left the venue of the Peace Parley, that Okuama community started harassing, intimidating and attacking our men, women and youths who were doing their fishing and farming businesses peacefully.

“They had promised to carry out mass murder on Okoloba people and drive us out of their land, saying that where Okoloba is located presently is their land and was given to them by Akugbene community.

“We also recall that, all hostilities perpetrated by Okuama against Okoloba have been consistently chronicled to the gracious attention of His Excellency, Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori, security agencies and the general public. The essence of this painstaking presentation is to do the following:

“We once again appeal to His Excellency, Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori to use his good offices to call the people of Okuama to order and stop the harassment, intimidation, unprovoked attacks and senseless killings of our people.

“We also call on security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Army, the Department of State Security Services, DSS and others to as a matter of urgency move into Okuama community to retrieve every arm, ammunition stockpiled in large quantities and arrest mercenaries imported from different Ewu villages to carry out attacks on Okoloba Community.

“But let it be known that Okoloba federated community is a freeborn community and unarguably the first fruit of Mein our progenitor, therefore, can never ever be slaves to settlers or any community for that matter.

“We will not hesitate to enforce our God-given right to self-defense, which is expressly entrenched in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended. We’ve been the crying child all the time, drawing public attention to the criminal and diabolic activities of Okuama settlers and have been on the receiving end all these years.

“But, be it known that there is a limit to every human endurance, we have been pushed to the wall”.

The Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Bright Edafe, when contacted confirmed the incident, saying that “the news is confirmed”.