By Emma Amaize
WARRI — CHAIRMAN of the Committee inaugurated by the Delta State Government, last year, to resettle victims of the 2009 military bombardment of Gbaramatu kingdom by the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, Barrister Kingsley Otuaro, yesterday, called on the state government to come to the rescue of the people.

Otuaro, who is one-time chairman of Okerenkoko community, said in an interview, “The government promised to rehabilitate the victims and started a housing project but as I am speaking to you now, the  project has been abandoned”.

His words: “The people are suffering, the government should mobilise its contractors back to site to complete the housing project for the people, they have no shelter, their homes were all burnt by the soldiers who attacked their homelands in Gbaramatu kingdom. Go to Okerenkoko and other places, you will see them, men, women and children  with no home to stay, exposed to elements of weather like animals”.

According to him, “My appeal is that government should rebuild the houses that were razed by the soldiers. Initially, the JTF said that they did not burn down houses in the communities, but, the government inspected the communities and saw that

Okerenkoko and other communities were completely razed,  they should hasten the process so that the people will have homes to rest their bones, they are passing through untold hardship_ this is my concern”.

Soldiers bombarded several Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu kingdom, last year, in their search and cordon operation for militants that laid ambush and killed more than 10 soldiers of the JTF. The worst hit was Okerenkoko, where  the community was practically levelled.