UGBOBA (Delta)  -The Obomkpa people in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State have kicked against the proposed plan to give official recognition to an Obi in Ugboba, a quarter in the community, they therefore called on relevant government agencies and the people of Ugboba to initiate the right steps so as to maintain peaceful coexistence within the community.
Some stakeholders in Obomkpa who met after the rumour proposed plans by the State Government to give official recognition to an Obi in Ugboba filterd in, observed that they will not do anything to truncate the peace agenda of the Uduaghan administration or that of the incoming Okowa administration.
President General of Obomkpa, Mr. Linus Chima while reviewing fallouts from the meeting, said though it was not in the position of Obomkpa to call for a meeting to resolve grey areas in the agitation and demands of Ugboba for an Obi, but that Obomkpa was ready to enter into meaningful dialogue on the matter and other related issues.
He said it was unanimously agreed by those in attendance that, the lengthy litigations which ended at the Supreme Court should have settled the matter of who owned the area where Ugboba is presently situated and by extension the propriety of a second King on the same land.
Echoing the participants, ‘if our brothers and sisters in Ugboba are ready for dialogue we will all sit down with them and other relevant government agencies to map the way forward’.
Epressing displeaure over what it termed ‘attempt to achieve their goal through the back door, under arm tactics and by cohesive means’ , the stakeholders observed that ‘they  have intermarried the  people in Ugboba,  adding that there is a strong bond between them  that goes back to the times of our forefathers.
Our fathers did not make a mistake by accommodating and living in peace and harmony with the people of Ugboba and indeed our neighbors namely, Onitcha Olona, Ezi, Idumu-Ogo, Ubulubu, Ukwunzu and Ohodua in Edo State.
Mr. Chima said, the stakeholders added that ‘our ancestors will turn in their graves if they find out that we are at each other’s throat’.
According to the President General, participants at the meeting said, it was in pursuance of peace that the litigations went on at different stages between 1951 and 1986 took place at various courts of the land.
While appealing to the state government to help strengthen the peace rather than allow the people to engage in unnecessary conflict, Obomkpa people however maintained, that unlike 1979 when an Obi was forcefully installed in Ugboba, by the then Military Administration, Obomkpa will not swallow the same bitter medicine this time around.
According to him, ‘our people are of the view that the instrument which brought about the installation of an Obi for Ugboba in 1979 was faulty from the onset. You can not build a castle with sand. It is bound to collapse. As reasonable people we are ready to discuss and give peace a chance’.