WARRI – Breakdown of communication between the EPZ Peace Committee and the indigenes may have been responsible for the crisis which erupted between the Ijaws and the Itsekiris of Delta State last week over the EPZ bush clearing contracts.
The villagers claim that they were not informed about the contract for the bush clearing contracts.
The NIGERIAN OBSERVER gathered that the Itsekiri youths who were expecting to benefit from the contract, were disappointed when they learnt that clearing of a large portion of the land for the $16bn gas project, was awarded without their knowledge. Some Itsekiri youths allegedly attacked their Ijaw counterparts for reportedly encroaching on their land and carrying out the bush clearing without their consent.
In a reprisal attack, the Ijaw youths invaded Kpokpo, an Itsekiri area, and burnt houses belonging to the Itsekiri people in the largely coastal area.
Leader of the Itsekiri community, Pa. George Kolo-Fregene, the Olare-Aja and Chairman of Kpokpo community Trust, at the weekend took a swipe on David Tonwe and Austin Oburogbeyi , two leaders of the peace committee for not carrying the youths along.
Kolo-Fregene, said that the failure of the two Itsekiri leaders to disclose facts surrounding the EPZ project as it affects Kpokpo land and the people, was the root cause of the current crisis.
‘’The attitude of the two leaders is like that of colonial masters who presided over the benefits and entitlements on the land of Africans in their absence and in complete disregard to them’’, the community leader said.
While calling on the Federal Government to call the EPZ committee leaders to order so as to avoid unnecessary violence in the area, Kolo-Fregene demanded that any transaction on the community land must be routed through the head of the kpokpo community, as the only legally endorsed interface.
He however condemned the attack on the area by the Ijaw youths and called on the government to intervene before the situation gets out of control.
David Tonwe
