Alex Eyengho, member of the Ugborodo Interface Committee on the Ogidigben Export Processing Zone Project speaks to Vanguard’s Egufe Yafugborhi in Warri on the continued unrest in Ugborodo and Gbaramatu Ijaw’s discontent on the coming $16B Gas City project.

STRIFE seems the order of the day with the EPZ. The Ugborodo crisis thought to have gone with the federal government peace accord and inauguration of the Interface Committee has just snapped with youths violently refusing resettlement of displaced persons. Does it not seem like one step forward, two backward?

Whenever something good is about to manifest, there are bound to be challenges which must be dealt with and overcome. Ogidigben EPZ Project, Ugborodo will not be different. The leadership crisis between Chief Ereyitomi Thomas and Mr. David Tonwe peaked in the last quarter of 2013. It got even more complicated in January 2014. This led to the intervention of the Federal Government through the Delta State Government. Various undertakings were signed by both factions in Abuja and a fresh 21-member Ogidigben EPZ Interface Committee set up.

Alex Eyengho

It was also agreed that the issue of the leadership of the Ugborodo Community Trust between Chief Ereyitomi and Mr. Tonwe be left for the court to decide since the Tonwe faction had dragged the Ereyitomi camp to court in bid to determine which faction is authentic. Both factions then nominated 10 persons as members of the Ogidigben EPZ Interface Committee Ugborodo, while the Delta State Government appointed Barr Austin Oboroegbeyi as Chairman of the Committee.

Part mandate of the committee is to ensure that all displaced persons from Ugborodo communities return home safely without any molestation. This, the committee was to do with full backing of the military (Navy, Army, SSS and Police).

Criminal elements

Thrice, efforts made by the military to resettle the displaced persons have been thwarted by some criminal elements in some of these communities.

What is the way out of this? Some persons have suggested that the Ogidigben EPZ Interface Committee should be dissolved for reason of its failure to bring peace to Ugborodo Community.

I respect that opinion, but I do not agree with the campaigners totally. The challenges in Ugborodo predate the EPZ Interface Committee. Whatever is happening now was not created by the committee. To that extent the committee cannot be held liable. If anything, despite the nefarious activities of fifth columnists within, the committee is trying its very best to bring enduring peace to Ugborodo. Having said that, I think what is needed is reconstitution of the EPZ Committee. Some persons in the committee do not really want it to succeed.

Such persons, for instance, thwarting effort of the Navy to resettle displaced indigenes should be weeded off without further delay and replaced with dedicated hands committed to total peace. Secondly, it is time to enforce peace in Ugborodo; enough of the handling criminal elements with kid gloves. The thing to do now is to militarize Ode-Ugborodo and Madangho. This will bring sanity the way militarization of Kokori brought sanity to that community.

But the defiant youths are some elders in Ode-Ugborodo are holding on to some demands they want fulfilled before allowing peace to reign. Don’t they have a point there?

They say those to be resettled committed sacrilege and needs to appease the gods. I ask the basic question -do youths decide in traditional matters? Why are they trying to play policemen, prosecutors and judge in their own case? These youths are interested party and indeed loyalists of a faction. What rituals are they going to perform for burning down the houses of Mr. Botosan, Mr. Atete, Pullen Esimimajemite, Mr. Edonmi Igbiaye and many others?

Those criminally barred from entering Ode-Ugborodo and Madangho are perceived loyalists of Chiefs Thomas Ereyitomi and Ayiri Emami faction in the leadership crisis of the Ugborodo Community Trust. Those detained at the Okere Prisons in Warri have issues with the government. The police and not individuals detained them. They should sort themselves out with the police or the courts.
Another thing heating up the system in Ugborodo is the plot to perpetually keep the loyalists of Chiefs Ereyitomi Thomas and Ayiri Emami out of Ugborodo communities, particularly Ode-Ugborodo and Madangho, until August ending 2014, when the 2nd tenure of the Chief Ereyitomi-led Trust was expected to come to an end.

This would now pave the way for them to organize a kangaroo Trust election at the Town Hall in. Ode-Ugborodo and subsequently announce Leader.

Obviously the prevailing failure to resettle displaced persons seem to have drowned the EPZ Committee in the politics of the Gas City Development Project. Your response to calls for disbanding of the EPZ Committee is that the body is trying. What is your context of trying in specifics?

We have made remarkable progress under the leadership of the Chairman of the committee, Barr. Austin Oboroegbeyi. Aside continued efforts at ensuring resettlement, we have also within the period held meetings with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), met with the Delta State Government, paid courtesy visit to the Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse II, CON, visited four of the five federating communities that make up Ugborodo community viz: Ode-Ugborodo (Arunton), Madangho, Ajudaibo and Ogidigben. These are the troubled communities from where some persons were displaced and barred from reentering the communities by youths who have become law unto themselves. The fifth Ugborodo community; Ijaghala is peaceful, thus no visit was made by the committee. So, really, the committee has made some remarkable progress within its mandate.

Beyond the internal problems, Ijaws claim they own 70 per cent of the location of the EPZ. They think it is consequently unfair to name the project after Ogidigben. What is your take here?

I urge anyone interested in knowing the facts of this matter to see Vanguard of Wednesday July 30, 2014 and read the Ugborodo rejoinder to the issues being raised by Gbaramatu. Ijaws have no claim whatsoever in the Ogidigben EPZ. There are two projects in one: Gas City covering 2,560.89 hectares of land and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Jetty Project of 300 hectares.

The land Delta State Government acquired for the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) for the Gas City lies between Ogidigben and Ajudaibo. Notices of Revocation of the Rights of Occupancy as published respectively in The Pointer of Thursday, November 12, 2012 and Vanguard of Thursday, December 6, 2012 expressly show that the land is between Ajudaibo and Ogidigben, which are in Ugborodo Community. The 300 hectares NPA Jetty lies between Madangho and Kpokpo. Courts of competent jurisdictions have adjudged these lands part of Ugborodo in various suits.

Tendered receipts where Ijaws pay as customary tenants to Itsekiri were part of the facts that gave Itsekiri court victory in those suits. Certainly, Itsekiri have copies of these receipts and are verifiable public documents in the Courts!

Barring the debate on land ownership, the Ijaws are asking for their own Interface committee. They say in the days of EGTL which they acknowledge was solely on Ugborodo soil, the Ijaws and even Ilajes of Ondo had their own Interface Committees to negotiate their stakes as impacted communities.

It is good to hear they agreed that they don’t have land ownership claim to the EGTL. The Itsekiri people have made it clear that they recognize the presence of the Gbaramatu people settled in Itsekiri land and the Sokebolou Ogulaha people as their neighbours. Same goes for the Ilajes. For this reason Ijaws and Ilajes benefited from projects within Ugborodo Community like the EGP, EGTL etc. in the usual Itsekiri spirit of accommodation, magnanimity and hospitality.

For the EPZ, Itsekiris are prepared to accommodate these people again, not as of right or by falsehood and threat or violence but as a privileged to neighbours. They can have as many EPZ Interface Committees as they desire if and when the project come to their land. For now, the entire land (about 3, 000 hectares) acquired by government for the EPZ Project belongs to the Itsekiri. Let me add that EPZ is 3 times bigger than the gradually winding off EGTL. There is so much to go round not just for Itsekiris, Ijaws and Ilajes but Delta State and Nigeria as a whole.

They are also insisting on change of the project’s name from. Ogidigben EPZ Project Ugborodo to a name that recognizes co-ownership with the Itsekiris. Is there no longer love in sharing?
I don’t agree. For the fact that the land acquired for the EPZ Project is between Ajudaibo and Ogidigben in Ugborodo, it can be named after any one of the two towns. Therefore, naming it after Ogidigben is in order. There should be no further argument about this, neither should attempts be made to blackmail or threaten Governor Uduaghan or President Jonathan into stopping the groundbreaking ceremony. Nobody has the monopoly of violence.