By Simon Ebegbulem,

Benin-City

There is tension in Aruogba in  Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, following the killing of the Chief Priest (Ohen-Ogba) of the community, 81-year-old Pa Clifford Omosomwan, by unknown assailants, penultimate Thursday. The situation is reminiscent of the January 2015 incident which saw the assistant head of the community, Pa Goodluck Uwumahongie, in his 80s, being beheaded during a crisis in the community over  the sale of land.  Over 10 other members of the community also lost their lives to the 2015 incident, while several houses, vehicles and motor cycles were set ablaze.

Uwumahongie’s killers were said to have made away with his severed head which is yet to be found even though the victim has long been buried. Sunday Vanguard learnt that some youths at war with  elders in the community had listed  ten of the elders to be eliminated and the latest victim, the Chief Priest, was on that list.

Ironically,  Omosomwan was said to have attended a meeting of the community, penultimate Wednesday evening, where the issue of how to stop the killings in the community which, Sunday Vanguard learnt, was caused by the struggle for the leadership of the Community Development Association (CDA). A youth leader,  killed last year January, is yet to be buried. The reason the family has decided not to bury him is  unknown. The deceased Chief Priest was said to be an upright man who had always stayed on the path of truth on the running of the community which apparently pitched him against some section of the youths in the community. It was said that his killers arrived at about 1am that Thursday. They shot through his window which forced the old man to wake up.

As he rose to find out  what was happening, the intruders shot him. The bullet reportedly pierced the door opposite his room and hit the occupant of the room. Fear gripped other elders of the community forcing many of them to flee to  neighbouring communities. Widow of the deceased, Madam Christy Omosomwan, narrated: “On the fateful day, I was in my room and he  in his room. Around 1 o’clock in the morning, I heard gunshots.  Then I came out of my room. When I got to my husband’s room, I called him but there was no response. I started crying”. Asked if he had any quarrel with anybody, she stated: “At  times they do quarrel in their meetings, but it is usually resolved. That day, they had a meeting but we didn’t hear of any problem. He came back home and later went to bed. Last year, a similar thing happened and they said he was among the elders  listed for killing in the community”.

Narrating also, an in-law to the deceased, Wilfred Ariagbonse, said: “It was around 1am that Thursday, when we heard  gunshots. By the time I got up and looked from the window of my room, the tenant there was shouting that he had been  shot too. We ran out and, before I got to where my in-law was, he was already dead. We don’t know what is happening any more. We are no longer safe because that was how they killed a community leader here last year and cut his head. We now live in fear, we don’t even know who the next person will be. We believe it is the same set of people that killed the assistant community head last year that killed my in-law. He was a truthful man and you know people don’t like the truth”.

The Assistant Chief Priest of the community, Chief Idubor, also spoke.

Idubor said: “It was shocking, we held a meeting that very day and we closed around 5 o’clock in the evening. The deceased bought us some drinks and we ate. Nobody expected it;  only that there was a slight argument between him and  another community leader, but it was resolved there. In the night, we heard that  assailants  broke the window and shot him dead.

“Before this time, Edo State Commissioner of Police invited us to his office and we begged him  to help us to settle the crisis in the community which started as a result of the CDA leadership. Even the Airport Police, we also begged them to  assist us because we discovered that most of our youths now belong to one cult or the other. It is the CDA of a thing that brought us to where we are. Everybody wanting to become  the  Chairman of the community is what led to the fight as at last year. And we have the feeling that the same people who killed one of the elders last year did this particular one again.

The Chairman of the CDA who was killed last year has not even been buried up till now. And we are still worried why the family has not buried him. The fear is that those youths, some of them are cultists and that is the problem. We the elders don’t drag land with the youths, we don’t drag positions with them in the CDA,  but I don’t know why some of them have singled out some elders to eliminate. We are so scared of our lives now, I no longer sleep at night because I am the number two in the community.”