By Emma Arubi  
 WARRI – TENSION now pervades the Ugborodo Itsekiri community and its neighbouring Ijaw communities in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, following recent moves by some Ijaw to erect a staff quarters on the  Kpokpo land in Ugborodo.

The land inhabited by the Kolo family of Ugborodo was sacked by the Ijaws during the Ijaw/ Itsekiri 1997-2003 crisis.

Similarly, another crisis is looming between some Ijaws of Gbaramatu Kingdom and the Itsekiri of Kantu community sacked by the Ijaws also during the same crisis.

Though the military authorities had waded into the festering crisis in Escravos by stopping further development on the land by the Ijaw, Vanguard learnt that the Itsekiri owners were told by their Ijaw neighbours, that Kpokpo was a now conquered territory.  

Assistant Public Relation Officer,  Ugborodo community, Mr. Perry Okoturoh told Vanguard that “it is unheard of that we still have conquered land in this  21st century.”

According to Okoturoh, the Ijaws razed Kpokpo settlement in Warri Kingdom during the seven years crisis against the Itsekiri nation and razed many more Itsekiri villages including Kantu in Gbaramatu Kingdom, where they both share the same ancestry.

He added that “the Ugborodo community had not abandoned Kpokpo land to any other person, family or ethnic nationalities.

“It remains the Kolo family quarters and therefore the land remains Ugborodo property,” he said.
He regretted that the Ijaws commenced building on the said land about two months ago to provoke another round of Ijaw/Itsekiri crisis, wondering how they can claim to be building a staff quarters on another man’s land in an area that has no school.

However, some Gbaramatu Ijaws, who spoke to newsmen, yesterday, maintained that the land now belongs to them, insisting that some Itsekiri boys came to pull down the staff quarters they were erecting on the land.