Amidst the ongoing national
mourning over the tragic murder of military personnel in Delta State, community
leader Olorogun Sleek Oshare asserts that the killings stemmed from a land
dispute within the state.
Seventeen persons were killed
in the Okuama community of Delta State last week in what has continued to
generate condemnation from Nigerian authorities.
While giving insights into the
killing on Monday, Oshare said the military personnel were in the area as part
of measures to settle a land dispute between Okuama and a neighbouring
community.
“The quarrel was just a land
dispute between one family and another family and land disputes happen over and
over again,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“One community felt that the
other had a military connection and they were being pressured unnecessarily.
The pressure is more on Okuoma and they don’t have anybody to speak for them.
“In the whole narrative, you
don’t hear the name of the other community. Where is Okoloba? In the last two
days, Okoloba has disappeared because they are also afraid.
“Sometimes, it is made to look
as if it were an ethnic thing. It was just a dispute between individuals and
Okoloba, which seems to have more connections.
“The families that were
involved in the dispute are highly placed. Until we go into the real investigation,
the truth will not come out.
“It is then the nation will
come out to sympathize with the children, pregnant women, and old people who
could have lost their lives in the random shootings.”
The community was razed
following the killing but Oshare says there should be restraints.
“At this point, we should be
careful whom we point fingers at, there might be some people who want to incite
the authorities against the people of Okuama,” he said.
Since the incident, the Federal
Government, Delta State, and military authorities have vowed to fish out
perpetrators of the crime.
But another guest on the show
Kabiru Adamu says the community should help in making that possible
”The community has a
responsibility to support the Nigerian state in fishing out those responsible,”
the security expert said.
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