BOMBED—Major Gen. Alani Okunola, Commander of the Joint Task Force (Middle); pointing to part of a severed pipeline, while Brig. Gen. Farouk Yahaya, Commander, 4 Brigade, Benin (2nd left); Lt. Col. Igwe P. Omoke, Commanding Officer, 3 Battalion Effurun (2nd right)and others watch during inspection of the gas pipeline in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State bombed by suspected militants. Inset: Other damaged areas. Photos: Akpokona Omafuaire.
By Etop Ekanem
Oporoza community in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, has said that Chief Emami Ayiri’s alleged instigation of the Joint Task Force, JTF, against the Ijaw and insinuations that Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, was the mastermind of the recent oil pipelines vandalism in the area, could trigger another Itsekiri versus Ijaw crisis.
Chairman of Oporoza, headquarters of communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Mr. Johnbull Demebi, therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and Ogiame Ikenwoli I, the Olu of Warri, to call Ayiri to order.
Demebi, who also urged President Buhari to reject the alleged plan to scrap the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko, said that Ayiri should not be allowed to cause another Ijaw and Itsekiri war.
“Both the Itsekiri and the Ijaw have resolved to live in peace following the 1997—2003 crisis in Warri area. We do not want disruption of the peace in any form,” Demebi said.
Alleging that Ayiri had subsisting hatred for Tompolo and the Ijaw, Demebi said his hasty accompaniment of the JTF to inspect bombed oil pipelines could only have amounted to propagation of self-serving interest. Demebi maintained that the security forces should have done their independent assessment at the beginning.
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